Syllabus

Jan 6: Course Introduction

Jan 11: The Perception of Science and Literature Today

• C.P. Snow, The Two Cultures

Jan 13: Two Cultures at UMD?

• C.P. Snow, The Two Cultures

Jan 18: Science and Literature in the 18th Century: Responses to Newton and the Romantic Reaction to Science

• Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Book 3) (excerpt)
• Alexander Pope, "An Epitaph Upon the Death of Sir Isaac Newton"
• William Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (excerpt)
• Humphry Davy, "A Preliminary Discouse at the Royal Institution" (excerpt)

Jan 20: Victor Frankenstein's Education

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Jan 25: Nature, Technology, Ethics

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Jan 27: The Feminist Critique of Science I

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
• Anne Mellor, "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein"
• Research Project Topic Selected

Feb 1: Reading Science as Literature

• Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
• Gillian Beer, "Analogy, Metaphor, and Narrative in The Origin"

Feb 3: The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge

• Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
• David Bloor, "The Strong Programme in the Sociology of Knowledge"

Feb 8: Social Construction in the History of Science

• Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
• Robert M. Young, "Darwinism Is Social"
• Research Project Group Work Plan Due

Feb 10: The Victorian Debates over Science in Education

• Matthew Arnold, "Literature and Science"
• T.H. Huxley, "Science and Culture"

Feb 15: The Legacy of the Arnold-Huxley Debate

• Matthew Arnold, "Literature and Science"
• T.H. Huxley, "Science and Culture"

Feb 17: Is Social Science Science?

• Sigmund Freud, Dora
• Reading Journal due

Mar 1: The Construction of Disease

• Sigmund Freud, Dora
• Mark Micale, "On the 'Disappearance' of Hysteria"
• Research Project Preliminary Bibliography Due

Mar 3: The Feminist Critique II

• Sigmund Freud, Dora
• Nancy Chodorow, Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory (excerpts)

Mar 8: Scientific Revolutions

• Bertolt Brecht, Galileo
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (excerpts)

Mar 10: Science and Religion

• Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

Mar 15: Better Living Through Chemistry?: Science as a Career

• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table

Mar 17: The Ethics of Science and Engineering

• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table
• Video Screening: "Nazi Designers of Death"

Mar 22: The Rhetoric of Science

• James Watson, The Double Helix
• Alan Gross, "The Tale of DNA"
• Research Project First Draft Due

Mar 24: The Feminist Critique III

• James Watson, The Double Helix
• Evelyn Fox Keller, "A World of Difference"
• Sandra Harding, "From the Woman Question in Science to the Science Question in Feminism"

Mar 29: Entropy in Literature: From Thermodynamics to Information Theory

• Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
• Katherine Hayles, "Self-Reflexive Metaphors in Maxwell's Demon and Shannon's Choice"

Mar 31: Cybernetics and Postmodern Fiction

• Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
• David Porush, "Cybernetic Fiction and Postmodern Science"

Apr 5: Chaos Theory

• Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
• James Gleick, Chaos (excerpts)
• Research Project Second Draft Due

Apr 7: Chaos Theory and Contemporary Literature

• Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
• Katherine Hayles, "Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science"

Apr 12: Film Screening

• Errol Morris, A Brief History of Time

Apr 14: The Image of the Scientist in Modern Society

• Morris, A Brief History of Time
• Shawn Rosenheim, "Extraterrestrial: Science Fictions in A Brief History of Time and The Incredible Shrinking Man"

Apr 19: Is the World Science Describes and Explains Really There?

• Morris, A Brief History of Time
• Reading Journal Due
• Group Research Paper Due
• Course Evaluations