Beyond two cultures: science, literature, and disciplinary boundaries

Jenkins, A. (2016) Beyond two cultures: science, literature, and disciplinary boundaries. In: John, J. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Victorian LIterary Culture. Series: Oxford handbooks of literature. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 401-415. ISBN 9780199593736 (doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199593736.013.30)

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Abstract

As some of the key arguments of literature and science studies have become widely accepted and adopted by Victorian studies at large, it is necessary to reconsider a number of methodological issues underpinning the historicist study of literature and science in this period. This essay discusses some of the methodological challenges which face the field in a changing research landscape. The essay asks what, if anything, distinguishes nineteenth-century literature and science studies from other existing and potential interdisciplinary historicist approaches. It outlines and critiques some of the key models used in this field, especially the ‘one culture’ and ‘two-way traffic’ models, and explores two fundamental problems in the explanatory procedures of literature and science studies: problems of analogy and causation.

Item Type:Book Sections
Keywords:Culture, literature and science, analogy, interdisciplinary, historical, historicist, one culture, two-way traffic.
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Jenkins, Professor Alice
Authors: Jenkins, A.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
Publisher:Oxford University Press
ISBN:9780199593736
Published Online:21 July 2015
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