Document Type
Syllabus
Publication Date
Fall 9-1-2024
Course Description
As an introduction to literature and the liberal arts, this course challenges the idea that there are two separate ways of knowing the world: the interpretive approach of the humanities and the positivist approach of the sciences. E.O. Wilson found a bridge between the two with the idea of consilience, a common ground in creative thinking, a will to observe and discover, and an appreciation of the power and of words and stories as a medium for describing reality. Carl Sagan described consilience as a dance, with each kind of knowledge taking its turn leading the other. Scientific discoveries and technological innovations give rise to new paradigms in literature, while the literary imagination inspires new scientific inquiries. Einstein thought that art and science came together in a shared sense of wonder in confronting the mysterious. We will survey literature that searches out mysteries in the living world and in technology, looking at the ways that literature imagines life in its many forms and metamorphoses, and technology with its many threats and promises. We will consider the relation between myth and science, evolution and metamorphosis in literature, narratives of environmental crisis, the imaginary ecologies of science fiction, animal sentience, future paths of artificial intelligence, and the place of life in the cosmos. In the end, we will think of literature as a path to the wonder that Einstein valued as essentially human.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Harry, "ENG 191A Reading Literature: Science, Nature and Technology Brown Fall 2024" (2024). All Course Syllabi. 682, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/records_syllabi/682
Student Outcomes
The purpose of our course is to understand consilience in literature, or the convergence of scientific and humanistic perspectives, as each way of thinking is fueled by the creative imagination. The course will help you (1) to read and understand texts from a variety of literary genres, (2) to understand and use basic literary critical terms, (3) to articulate their own ideas about literature, and (4) to develop a more specific critical awareness of climate crisis and artificial intelligence as the two predominant scientific issues that both threaten and promise to redefine future human experience.