Science Literature

AY2014/2015 Semester 1

This course will investigate various treatments of science by literature according to both traditional and contemporary (postmodern) theories within the philosophy of science. According to Jean Francois Lyotard, scientific knowledge has traditionally been legitimated for being either emancipatory, or according to how it assists in the realization of a unified scientific whole. Texts by Ibsen and Glaspell provide an opportunity for investigating the poignancy of the first of these legitimation narratives, while texts by Ursula LeGuin and John Banville will help us evaluate the second legitimation narrative. Finally, we will conclude the semester by questioning whether scientific knowledge is, as Foucault suggests, ?linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it. A regime of truth;? relevant texts to this discussion are Thomas Pynchon?s The Crying of Lot 49 and Darren Aronofsky?s Pi.