LITERATURE AND SCIENCE: TC 357 (39780): Spring 2002

TTH 2-3:30 in UTC 4.114
Office Hours: TTh 1-2 and W 11-12 in Homer Rainey Hall 3.114B

Lucretius, The Way Things Are
Dante, Paradiso
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; film version by Kenneth Branagh
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table; documentary on video
Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics
Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia; interview and selected scenes on video
Michael Frayn, Copenhagen
C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures and a Second Look
Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix (film)

Description: In this course we examine "literary" works, in various genres--poetry, novels, short stories, and theater--from ancient to recent times, that represent scientists and their work or are otherwise substantially informed by scientific thinking. We will look at how writers use scientific ideas to express multiple dimensions--ethical, material, spiritual, political--of human existence. Having established a preliminary understanding of the science-literature relationship based on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures" essay and responses to it, we shall discuss the other primary texts in four thematically organized units. In "Pre- and Post-modern Science and Myth" we will interweave sections of Lucretius' science-epic with Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics. "Science and Creation," joining literary history and scientific paradigms, pairs Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (novel and film) with Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Dante's Paradiso and Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness are our principal vehicles for considering "Otherworlds and Moral Orders." The last unit, "Scientific Metaphor in History and Representation," looks at how Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, and the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix bring science to bear on arguably the most ethically-charged events of the last century and the present. Selected theoretical and critical works, on reserve in the PCL, will inform our discussion of the course texts and perhaps prove useful for your final research paper.

Assignments and Computation of Grade: A research paper (14-20 pp. with full documentation) will account for 40% of the final grade, with the remaining 60% evenly distributed between two short response essays (2-4 pp.), a midterm exam, and informed class participation (more than 3 absences will automatically lower your participation grade). The response essays, treating primary and / or reserve readings, must be both descriptive and analytical. They will be used as points of departure for class discussion.

Contains a Substantial Writing Component. No final examination.

Course Origins and Themes

1/15: Introductions; sciences and humanities in culture and education

1/17: Chaos and Order: Calvino's "Crystals" (handout)

1/22: C. P. Snow, Two Cultures and a Second Look; reserve: Calvino, Uses of Literature (28-38)

1. Pre- and Post-modern Science and Myth

1/24: Lucretius, The Way Things Are (book 1); Calvino, Cosmicomics (3-16)

1/29: Way Things Are (books 2-3); Cosmicomics (19-47)

1/31: Way Things Are (book 4); Cosmicomics (51-68)

2/5: Way Things Are (books 5-6); Cosmicomics (71-112); reserve: Serres, Hermes: Literature, Science, Philosophy (98-124)

2/7: Cosmicomics (115-53)

2. Science and Creation

2/12: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (5-78)

2/14: Frankenstein (79-139)

2/19: Frankenstein (140-215)

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Screening at 7 pm in FAC 344)

2/21: Tom Stoppard, Arcadia

* 2/26: FAC 304: "Mathematics in Arcadia" (video)

2/28: Midterm Examination

3. Otherworlds and Moral Orders

3/5: Dante, Paradiso, cantos 1-9

3/7: Paradiso 10-14; reserve: Freccero, Poetics of Conversion (pp. 221-44)

3/11-3/16: SPRING BREAK (explore possible topics for research paper)

3/19: Paradiso 15-22

3/21: Paradiso 23-27

3/26: Paradiso 28-33

3/28: Ursula Le Guin, Left Hand of Darkness (1-71)

4/2: Research Topic Due; Left Hand of Darkness (72-220)

The Matrix (Screening at 7pm in FAC 344)

4/4: Left Hand of Darkness (221-301); reserve: Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (pp. 222-46)

4. Scientific Metaphor in History and Representation

*4/9: FAC 304: BBC biography of Primo Levi (video); Periodic Table (3-78)

4/11: Periodic Table (79-126); Research Abstract and Bibliography Due

4/16: Periodic Table (127-99)

4/18: Periodic Table (200-33)

4/23: Michael Frayn, Copenhagen

4/25: Research Paper consultations (in HRH 3.114B)

4/30: Presentations

5/2: Presentations

5/3: Research Paper Due

"The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY."