Difference between revisions of "2023 AM Physics and Fiction"

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(Session 3: 03 May)
(Session 5: 17 May)
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===Session 5: 17 May===
 
===Session 5: 17 May===
 
*Contexts: Norbert Schaffeld, "The Historical Science Novel and the Narrative of an Emergent Scientific Discourse" (2016)
 
*Contexts: Norbert Schaffeld, "The Historical Science Novel and the Narrative of an Emergent Scientific Discourse" (2016)
*Reading and discussion: "The Woman Who Measure the Heavens with a Span" by Stella Duffy
+
*Reading and discussion: "The Woman Who Measured the Heavens with a Span" by Stella Duffy
*Presentation: Lise Meitner and Nuclear Fission
+
 
*Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)
 
*Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)
  

Revision as of 16:53, 6 March 2023

    under construction
  • Modul: ang622 ('Akzentsetzung'), phy355 (physikalische Wahlstudien), pb113, pb114
  • Lecturer: Petra Groß and Anna Auguscik
  • Course: 3.02.221
  • Time: Wednesday 16-18h
  • Venue: online via Stud.IP, BBB meetings
  • Course Description:

Physics has often been understood as the opposite of fiction: formulae vs narrative; reality vs constructedness; in short, fact vs fiction. This has not discouraged writers to take this very challenge, as a long genre tradition of science fiction attests. However, the interest on the part of what is considered 'literary fiction' seems to be more recent.

In this summer semester, we offer a new interdisciplinary seminar called "Physics in contemporary fiction". In a rare setting with students from both the English and the Physics departments, we will read a science novel and science-related short stories. We want to approach questions such as: How much science is contained in these texts and how is it incorporated? How important is it for the text? Is the representation correct or plausible? What is the underlying scientific context, and how does it relate to society or politics-related discussions? How do these writings join the 'two cultures' debate? And how can (becoming) physicists and literary scholars, or teachers of either discipline, profit from such a reading?

Please, buy and read the following novel and short story anthology:

  • Kalfus, Ken. Equilateral. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. [ISBN 978-1-62040-006-7; available via Bueltmann & Gerriets; but you may also find used copies on the internet, get a Kindle version, etc.]
  • Page, Ra, ed. Litmus: Short Stories from Modern Science Manchester: Comma Press, 2011. [ISBN: 978-1-905583-33-1 ; also available via Bueltmann & Gerriets]


PLEASE NOTE: Use the time until the beginning of term to immerse yourself in the reading of the novel and the short story anthology. Additional materials for preparation, as well as the detailed syllabus, will be made available here and/or on Stud.IP.


Session 1: 19 April

  • Introductory session
  • Welcome: Please read our message under 'Ankündigungen on Stud.IP'; familiarize yourself with the draft syllabus that you find here and note the course requirements for 3 KP (students in Physics, Engineering) or 6 KP (students in English/American Studies)
  • For 3 KPs:
  • (1) active participation in the course (you should not miss more than 3 sessions)
  • (2) 1-2 input presentation(s) on a topic referring to the physics, or 1 presentation regarding the media-specific, i.e. narratological/discursive aspects of the primary reading
  • For additional 3 KPs (i.e. 6 KPs in total)
  • (3) one seminar paper (10-12 pp), based on the topic of your presentation (upload to Stud.IP and hand in as print version by 15 September).
  • We will meet on Stud.IP (go to our course --> 'meetings' --> no camera, switch on but mute microphone (we will add these as we proceed)
  • The Universe, a Netflix series, with Morgan Freeman (S1E2)

Session 2: 26 April

  • Contexts: Vanderbeke, "Physics" (2011)
  • Reading and discussion: Ra Page, "Introduction." Litmus: Short Stories from Modern Science (vii-xiii)
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)

Session 3: 03 May

  • Contexts: C.P. Snow, "The Two Cultures" (1959; esp. pp. 1-21); Stefan Collini's "Introduction" (esp. pp. ix-xvi)
  • Reading and discussion: "The Pitch"
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)

Session 4: 10 May

  • Contexts:
  • Reading and discussion: tba
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)

Session 5: 17 May

  • Contexts: Norbert Schaffeld, "The Historical Science Novel and the Narrative of an Emergent Scientific Discourse" (2016)
  • Reading and discussion: "The Woman Who Measured the Heavens with a Span" by Stella Duffy
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)

Session 6: 24 May

  • Contexts: Dihal Kanta, "New Science, New Stories: Quantum Physics as a Narrative Trope in Contemporary Fiction" (2019)
  • Reading and discussion: "In Search of Silence"
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)

Session 7: 31 May

  • Reading and discussion: Kalfus, Equilateral
  • Presentation: Equilateral as Narrative
  • Foreshadowing: Physics in Equilateral

Session 8: 07 June

  • Contexts: Reviews and criticism, see below
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)
  • Presentation:

Session 9: 14 June

  • Contexts: Reviews and criticism, see below
  • Tasks: (see Stud.IP announcements)
  • Presentations:

Session 10: 21 June

  • Contexts: Reviews and criticism, see below
  • Presentations:
  • evaluation

Session 11: 28 June

  • final discussion
  • feedback on evaluation

Session 12: 12 July

  • discussion of lit/cult research papers
  [Hand in research papers until 15 September 2023]

Tools

Primary Reading

  • see above

Further Reading

cf. Stud.IP/files

Literary and cultural reading

  • Literature and Science
  • Snow, C.P. Two Cultures
  • Anton Kirchhofer and Natalie Roxburgh, "The Scientist as ‘Problematic Individual’ in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction" (2016)
  • Schaffeld, ZAA
  • Engelhardt, Nina; Hoydis, Julia Representations of Science in Twenty-First-Century Fiction: Human and Temporal Connectivities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan (London); 2019.
  • Haynes
  • Narrative Turn in Science
  • Physics in/and Fiction
  • Dihal, Kanta. "New Science, New Stories: Quantum Physics as a Narrative Trope in Contemporary Fiction." pp. 55-74 IN: Engelhardt, Nina; Hoydis, Julia Representations of Science in Twenty-First-Century Fiction: Human and Temporal Connectivities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan (London); 2019.
  • Oppermann, Serpil. "Quantum Physics and Literature: How They Meet the Universe Halfway." Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie ; 2015; 133(1) 87-104.
  • Vanderbeke, Dirk. "Physics." pp. 192-202 IN: Clarke, Bruce(ed.); Rossini, Manuela(ed.) The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science. London, England: Routledge; 2011. xviii, 550
  • Leane, Elizabeth. "Knowing Quanta: The Ambiguous Metaphors of Popular Physics." The Review of English Studies ; 2001 Aug; 52(207) 411-31.
  • Cain, Sarah. "The Metaphorical Field: Post-Newtonian Physics and Modernist Literature." The Cambridge Quarterly ; 1999; 28(1) 46-64.
  • Equilateral:
  • Marshall, Kate. "What Are the Novels of the Anthropocene? American Fiction in Geological Time." American Literary History 27.3 (2015 Fall): 523-538.
  • Litmus:

[no secondary literature yet, but some reviews, see below]

Science reading

Quotes

Links