 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Fall 2008
ENGL 397 Topics in Literature: Literature and Science Instructor: Wilkens, Matthew TTH 10:50-12:05 Synopsis An upper-level undergraduate course on the conceptual links between science, science studies, and literary fiction, covering major figures and contemporary problems at the intersection of these fields. No prerequisites, although experience in literature or philosophy will be helpful. NB: This is not a course in science fiction. Description Literature has long drawn on science as a source of both subject matter (as in science fiction) and metaphorical associations (from Defoe to Pynchon, and countless points between). Science has likewise relied on literature not only as a means to popularization, but also in its professional propagation. But is this connection between the two fields more than a superficial and coincidental alignment of interests? Do literature and science work in similar ways? Can we compare the kinds of knowledge they produce? What does it mean to “produce” knowledge? And how do we do it? This course attempts to answer these questions by considering recent developments in science studies in conjunction with both literary theory and works of contemporary fiction. It explores the connections between the terms “objectivity,” “truth,” “paradigm,” “collective,” “event,” “narrative,” and “allegory” and argues that knowledge is the product of a situated interaction between them. The semester will be divided into five three-week units, each comprising a primary theoretical and fictional text, along with supplementary articles, films, and other materials. The first unit covers the historical origins of science studies, including Ludwik Fleck’s concepts of “thought styles” and collectivities. It pairs this work with Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 to examine both the complexity and inescapability of social structures of knowledge. The second unit, covering Thomas Kuhn and Alain Robbe-Grillet, continues and expands the first, moving away from collectivities as pre-given entities and beginning to examine the temporal processes through which they are formed, stabilized, and transformed. The third section takes up the related problems of narrativization and exclusion, drawing heavily on Bruno Latour and John Edgar Wideman’s metaphors of contagion and contamination—both intimately connected with racial discourses. N. Katherine Hayles and Margaret Atwood supply the primary texts for the fourth unit, devoted to feminist and post-humanist conceptions of science, gender, and social organization. The fifth and final unit will consider the relationship between mathematics, cognitive science, and constructivist epistemology through readings of selected essays on the philosophy of mathematics and of Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2. Objectives This course has three primary objectives, which can be arranged in order of increasing generality. First, it aims to provide a specific body of knowledge about contemporary literature and its relationships to science studies. Students who complete this course will be prepared to undertake more advanced work in this hybrid area and to begin making their own contributions to it. Second, it provides a basis for further work in the literary humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences generally. It introduces students to methods and critical vocabularies employed in these fields and familiarizes them with the resources commonly used in conducting literary and social scientific research. Third, it seeks to build students’ skills in critical and metacritical analysis. A central thesis of the course is that scientific and literary discourses resemble one another to a greater extent than is generally acknowledged; if this is so, the specific skills and techniques acquired in one discipline should be useful in the other, and vice versa.Written work and grading Two papers of ten pages each will be required, one due at the end of fall break and the other taking the place of a final exam. Alternatively, you may write a single twenty-page term paper. In addition, weekly one-paragraph responses will be required over the course of the semester. Overall grades will be based on the long papers (35% each, or 70% for a single term paper), response papers (20% in sum), and class participation (10%). You must satisfactorily complete all assignments to pass the course. Readings
In addition, essays and selections from Karl Popper, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Sandra Harding, and David Foster Wallace will be available on reserve. |
|