Last modified: 25 Sep 2019 09:58
Many scientific assumptions we take for granted first took root during the nineteenth century. The idea that the earth had a vast prehuman history, and the notion that humans had evolved organically from other species, were profoundly counter-intuitive and challenged accepted narratives about humans’ place in nature. To understand these sciences required a huge imaginative leap; once understood, they offered new thought-worlds for literary exploitation. This period also saw science and literature increasingly defined against each other. Exploring fiction alongside nonfiction, this course investigates how key authors brought fact, fiction and poetry together to respond to these challenges.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 4 |
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| Session | First Sub Session | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
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This course offers an exciting interdisciplinary look at the impact of science on the literature and culture of the Victorian period, and how literary and cultural factors shaped scientific thought and practice.
Exploring fictional and poetic writings alongside the literature of scientific nonfiction, it investigates how scientific developments in key areas of innovation (e.g. geology, palaeontology, biology,
anthropology) challenged or reinforced traditional ideas about religion, gender, class and the human mind, and how these sciences fed into and were fuelled by Victorian ideas about the progress of civilization. In so doing, we shall be interrogating and theorizing the nature of science’s relationship with literature. These two categories are usually treated as opposite poles today, an attitude which has its roots in the Victorian era, but – as we shall see – the truth is rather less simple.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 30 | |
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
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| Feedback | Word Count | 3000 | ||
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 20 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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There are no assessments for this course.
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