“A New Discipline of Vision”: The Synthesis of Poetic and Scientific Epistemologies in Contemporary Speculative Verse (2003)
Morse, Andrew Daniel (Author)
University of Oregon
Gage, John T.
Edition Details: Advisor: Gage, John T.
Physical Details: 241 pp.
Language: English
This dissertation explores the intersections of poetics and science in the texts of seven contemporary authors of speculative verse: Frank Herbert, Diane Ackerman, Thomas M. Disch, Robert Frazier, Andrew Joron, Roald Hoffmann and Frederick Turner. These authors' works illustrate that, contrary to prevailing Western philosophies, there is no necessary antagonism nor incompatibility between poetry and science. Analyses of their literary and theoretical texts also suggest that much stands to be gained from the collaboration of poetic and scientific epistemologies. Each discipline, for instance, can benefit from drawing upon the strengths of the other: there is value for the scientist in employing a poetic imagination and the freedoms of poetic language in both arriving at and articulating complex scientific theories; for the poet, science can reveal important aspects of the nature and experience of poetry---and scientifically- informed poets are more prepared to write verses with greater cultural relevancy. However, many of the texts this dissertation examines suggest that more thoroughly interdisciplinary efforts could produce greater benefits: Frazier and Joron contend that the active collaboration of two disciplines believed by many to be polar opposites might initiate trends toward intellectual and cultural cooperation on larger scales; Disch's work argues that a poetic-scientific epistemology is capable of providing a more robust understanding of---and more novel solutions to---humanity's most significant problems; and Ackerman and Hoffmann explore how interdisciplinary perspectives could give rise to a more species-sustaining ethical or spiritual vision. Much of the work of these seven poets, especially Herbert and Turner, also asks readers to consider how the synthesis of poetics and science might ultimately lead to extraordinary insights or powers. Though the most outrageous claims of the speculative poetry movement initially strike us as purely science fictional, some provide compelling symbols of the potential benefits of reconsidering the two cultures perspective and more thoroughly exploring the intersections of poetry and science.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 64 (2004): 2882. UMI order no. 3102180.
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