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Spring 2013 First-Year Seminar BC1462 section 001
SCIENCE LITERATURE & CULTURE

Call Number 03370
Day & Time
Location
TR 4:10pm-5:25pm
214 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
Points 3
Approvals Required None
Instructor Lisa K Hollibaugh
Type SEMINAR
Course Description In this seminar, we will explore the cultural intersection of science and literature by reading pieces of creative writing (novels, plays, poems, short stories) alongside pieces of scientific writing (articles, essays, treatises). Topics will include the "proper" purposes and aims of scientific pursuit, the possibilities of artificial life and artificial intelligence, the implications of geological discovery and the theory of evolution, the impact of early theories of psychology and anthropology, the application of quantum and chaos theory to human existence, and the consequences of genetic experimentation. How do fiction writers engage such scientific theories in the themes and structures of their works, and to what end? How do scientists engage elements of storytelling in the explanation of their theories? What stories of human experience are fiction and science telling at different moments in Western history, and do science and literature seem to represent two different "cultures" at those moments? Readings will include works by Plato, Chaucer, Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Pope, Mary Shelley, Lyell, Tennyson, Darwin, Arnold, Dreiser, Freud, Anderson, Boas, Hurston, Einstein, Durenmatt, Snow, Pynchon, Borges, Stoppard and Ishiguro.
Web Site CourseWorks
Department First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
Enrollment 15 students as of 11:44PM Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Subject First-Year Seminar
Number BC1462
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Open To Barnard
Campus Barnard College
Section key 20131FYSB1462X001

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SIS update 05/21/13 23:44    web update 05/22/13 07:30