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Membranes: Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics (review)

Membranes: Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics (review) BOOK REVIEWS Membranes. Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics. By Laura Otis. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. x + 210 pp. $45.00. Studies of science and literature (or other fields in the humanities) used to be a "one-way" traffic: Marjorie Nicolson and other distinguished practitioners of this sub-discipline were exclusively concerned with the impact of scientific ideas on poetry, prose, or drama; others were interested in the dramatization of scientific problems, others again with the fictional or non-fictional prose writings of scientists. Although Laura Otis seemingly follows the latter mode, because four of the fiction writers she studies--S. Weir Mitchell, Santiago Ramón Cajal, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Arthur Schnitzler--were trained, practicing, and even distinguished scientists or physicians, yet her methodological approach is quite different. In line with recent shifts in the philosophy of science and the emergence of cultural studies, she does not simply ask what impact the scientific training and research (which, in all cases, chronologically preceded the fiction writing) had on a writer's fiction, but she assumes that both their science and their fiction were conditioned by conscious or unconscious prior ideological presuppositions. More concretely, she establishes a network of metaphoric http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Studies Penn State University Press

Membranes: Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics (review)

Comparative Literature Studies , Volume 40 (3) – Feb 9, 2003

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Publisher
Penn State University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by The Pennsylvania State University.
ISSN
1528-4212
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS Membranes. Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics. By Laura Otis. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. x + 210 pp. $45.00. Studies of science and literature (or other fields in the humanities) used to be a "one-way" traffic: Marjorie Nicolson and other distinguished practitioners of this sub-discipline were exclusively concerned with the impact of scientific ideas on poetry, prose, or drama; others were interested in the dramatization of scientific problems, others again with the fictional or non-fictional prose writings of scientists. Although Laura Otis seemingly follows the latter mode, because four of the fiction writers she studies--S. Weir Mitchell, Santiago Ramón Cajal, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Arthur Schnitzler--were trained, practicing, and even distinguished scientists or physicians, yet her methodological approach is quite different. In line with recent shifts in the philosophy of science and the emergence of cultural studies, she does not simply ask what impact the scientific training and research (which, in all cases, chronologically preceded the fiction writing) had on a writer's fiction, but she assumes that both their science and their fiction were conditioned by conscious or unconscious prior ideological presuppositions. More concretely, she establishes a network of metaphoric

Journal

Comparative Literature StudiesPenn State University Press

Published: Feb 9, 2003

There are no references for this article.