The science of literature and the literature of science

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McLaren, John (1995) The science of literature and the literature of science. [Teaching Resource] (Unpublished)

Abstract

Contains a discussion on the process of literary creation, emphasizing the notion that the works of scientists and poets or novelists are similar. The scientists are driven by the same kind of fierce passions that are found in writers, and their discoveries are often the products of the same kind of imaginative leap that characterises the solution of a problem in mathematics or physics. Although literature and the arts are regarded as rather leisurely kinds of indulgence in the pleasures of imagination, the artist, of course, knows that he is as much engaged in the pursuit of truth as any scientist, and that the products of his labour are as important and valuable as the work of any other technologists. The author further discusses the works of such writers who saw both literature and science as branches of the same art of genesis.

Additional Information

Lecture written by John for his VU Lit course in 1997
Item type Teaching Resource
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/17187
Subjects Historical > FOR Classification > 2005 Literary Studies
Current > Collections > McLaren Papers
Keywords Structuralism, literature, science, Australia, literary theories, semiology, semiotics, MCLAREN-BOXB7-DOC5
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