- Folkert Degenring review on BSLS:
“A wealth of metaphors has been produced to
describe the complex relationship between literature and science, each bearing its
own set of implications. C. P. Snow’s ‘Two Cultures’ is such a metaphor, implying
separateness and distinctness but also – at least from a perspective influenced by
(post)structuralist thought – a fundamental unity: both are ‘Cultures’. Other metaphors,
as the editors point out in their introduction to this welcome collection of essays,
draw on the topographical images of the abyss and the cleft, ‘which call out for building
bridges’ (9). A different sort of metaphor has been provided by Stephen Jay Gould,
drawing on Deleuze and Guattari: the quilt as a ‘diverse collection of separate patches
into a beautiful and integrated coat of many colors’ (Gould in Hagen et al. 9).
This does indeed seem to be an appropriate metaphor for the volume at hand.
Organised into two sections, ‘Discoveries – Struggle, Scandal and Adaptation’ and
‘Encounters – Borders and Crossings’, the essays cover a wide spectrum of topics,
approaches and contributors: from general observations concerning the relation of
literature and science to specific historical reconstructions, from the history of
ideas to cognitive linguistics, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, from
American, English, French, German, Italian, Latin American to Scandinavian literature,
from literature, linguistics and law to philosophy of science, biochemistry and physics.
All essays are based on contributions to a research workshop held at the University
of Bergen in 2008, and while the collection could thus be described as a ‘continuation
of a dialogue’ (27) only one of the essays directly refers to another one – Holly
Henry’s to Gillian Beer’s – and the rest of the essays largely stand for themselves.
This is by no means to say that there aren’t any correspondences between the individual
contributions, but they are not grouped thematically (an index would therefore have
been a very helpful addition).
Andrea Battistini opens the first section
and examines ‘The Love-Hate Relationship of Literature and Science’, placing a strong
emphasis on the observation that this relationship is generally seen to be one-way
only and that it is usually literature which seeks to assimilate scientific discourse;
one of literature’s functions is a ‘kind of translation’ (32). At the same time, Battistini
argues with Thomas Kuhn that simple dichotomies fail to describe literature and science
adequately. Indeed, metaphor and analogy are at the heart of both, and literature
can be as much at the service of science as science can be at the service of literature.
Gillian Beer’s essay, ‘Darwin’s “Filthy Heraldries”’, draws attention to the
aspect of scandal that surrounds the reception of Darwin’s work. Since it is not the
completely new that is really scandalous, Beer argues, but that which has already
been suspected and hinted at, this angle enables us to understand both the profound
impact of Darwin and the role of his precursors. We may laugh at some of the reactions
of his contemporaries, but Beer points out that some elements in Darwin’s theories
are disturbing, perhaps even scandalous, today: the acceptance of extinction as a
fundamental part of evolution seems so troubling, for example, ‘that recent commentators
have blanked out what Darwin wrote and thought, since it is out of kilter with our
current fears and desires’ (53).
Holly Henry’s ‘Scandal and Oblivion: Some
Thoughts on Darwin, Oedipus and Adaptation’ is a direct response to Beer’s observations,
further expanding on the aspect of scandal and Darwin. Citing Brian Boyd, Henry describes
myth as a survival tool, an evolutionary adaptation. If part of the scandal of the
theory of evolution is that it runs counter to established myths of origins, then
this confronts us with a certain paradox.
The second section contains essays
produced by scholars from the Universities of Bergen and Oslo and loosely follows
the chronology of the texts discussed in each essay. Most of the essays deal with
a particular author or national literature.
Ragnar Fjelland examines Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of colour in Zur Farbenlehre (1808) and his unwillingness
to accept the strict division of the subjective and objective. Margery Vibe Skagen
reconstructs nineteenth-century fields of associations surrounding Mesmerism and hypnosis
in connection with Baudelaire’s writing, and also explores in what ways poetry itself
could be described as magnetic, or even hypnotic. Randi Koppen’s essay focuses on
Wyndham Lewis’ Time and Western Man (1927). Contrasting Lewis with C. P. Snow, Koppen
differentiates between modernists’ engagement with scientific theory and applied science,
and points out both discrepancies and connections in the evaluation of the influence
of modernism.
Roger Strand examines short stories by nuclear physicist
Leo Szilard; Hans Jacob Ohldieck explores the use of the Big Bang theory in the work
of the Cuban theoretician, poet and novelist Severo Sarduy. Željka Švrljuga demonstrates
how Buffon’s Histoire naturelle influences Patricia Eakins’ novel The Marvellous Adventures
of Jean Baptiste, Father & Mother, First & Last, while Margareth Hagen closely
examines the moon in Primo Levi’s work and his attempts to connect science with poetry.
Hagen emphasizes the role of wonder as a concept that is essential in poetry and perhaps
science as well: ‘Overtaken by the marvel of an incomprehensible phenomenon, man will
be driven to search for new knowledge. This could be a fair description of the scientific
poetics of Levi as well’ (195).
Eivind Tjønneland, Christine Hamm and Rasmus
T. Slaattelid all deal with Scandinavian literature. Tjønneland explores the impact
of Darwin on neo-romanticism and decadence in Scandinavian literature of the late
nineteenth century, while Hamm links nineteenth-century conceptions of the female
body with Sigrid Undset’s Jenny (1911). Slaattelid provides a reading of Hedda Gabler
from an unusual angle: describing the Research Council of Norway’s (RCN) criteria
for evaluation research grant applications (which are similar to those in the UK and
the US), Slaattelid uses Ibsen’s play as a kind of case study. Asking which of the
two very different academics in the play would be more likely to receive a research
grant, Slaattelid also ponders the effects a normative evaluation policy has on the
scope and scale of research projects.
The remaining essays all deal with
literary texts as well, but take on a more general perspective. For example, Charles
I. Armstrong discusses the concepts of ecocriticism and ecopoetry in relation to the
natural sciences, while Jostein Børtnes ponders the role of metaphor in relation to
cognition in science, poetry and theology. Drawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors
We Live By (1980), Børtnes examines both metaphor and analogy as the basis of both
scientific and religious thought and language, while at the same time highlighting
the differences in their usage.
The shifting meaning of the term ‘robot’
– from machinelike man to manlike machine – is the topic of Jon Bing’s essay. From
Rabbi Löw’s Golem, via Frankenstein, Ada Lovelace, Fritz Lang, Čapek’s R.U.R., to
Asimov and Dick, the history of the robot as ‘a powerful literary symbol, high-lighting
the way humans may be used without respecting their individual dignity’ (168) is traced.
Given the scope of the ‘quilt’ The Art of Discovery provides, not everyone
will find all essays immediately applicable to their own work; this, however, is only
to be expected. For the same reason, the collection cannot (nor does it want to) provide
a comprehensive overview of the subjects covered. It does provide an impressive array
of possible lines of connections, however, and reminds the reader of how vast the
field of literature and science studies is. It is a valuable addition to literature
and science studies, and some of the individual essays are not just intellectually
stimulating but also highly enjoyable to read. Certainly all provide food for thought.
That some questions remain unanswered does not necessarily detract from the very positive
overall impression. As Margareth Hagen puts it in her essay: ‘[T]he opposite of science
and poetry is therefore surely not the quest for knowledge itself, but safe, inert,
defined and secure knowledge’ (196).”
Abstract
Amazon (2013):
This anthology brings together scholars from literature, the natural sciences, and
the philosophy of science, to present new perspectives on the relations between literary
and scientific communities. Drawing on literature spanning the 19th and 20th centuries,
as well as Europe and the Americas, the authors explore how science has been portrayed
from the perspective of literature at different times and in different places - as
challenge or opportunity, promise or scandal. The disturbance of science emanates
perhaps from its association with a frightening future or its ability to change the
appearance of the past; the scandal occurs as it recalls us to thresholds and hybrids:
human and non-human, animal and machine. Science, however, also emerges as a source
of metaphor and imaginative modelling, of encodings and decodings, representations
and discoveries. Less prominent in the collection, though no less important, is the
view on how scientific cultures portray literature or the literary academic, and how
science reflects on itself.