The intertwined narratives of realistic fiction and the laws of thermodynamics parallel one another in their shaping of anthropocentric perspectives. The novel, with its human-centered storytelling, forward trajectory, concern with the details of daily life, and satisfyingly closed endings, has powerfully influenced our expectations for narratives in both fiction and non-fiction alike. Examining two ecologically problematic aspects of the novel—its anthropocentrism and its apparent closure—in relation to the science of energy, this study suggests that understanding the biases within novelistic storytelling can shed light on inherent biases in scientific narratives, encouraging a reevaluation of energy discourse to foster alternative perspectives and ecologically conscious worldviews.
...MoreArticle Anne E. C. McCants; Anya Zilberstein (2024) Introduction. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (pp. 297-304).
Similar Citations
Book
Cara New Daggett;
(2019)
The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work
(/isis/citation/CBB510402598/)
Article
Gregory Hitch;
Marcus Grignon;
(2023)
A Forest of Energy: Settler Colonialism, Knowledge Production, and Sugar Maple Kinship in the Menominee Community
(/isis/citation/CBB488449258/)
Article
Jones, Anna Maria;
(2011)
Conservation of Energy, Individual Agency, and Gothic Terror in Richard Marsh's The Beetle, or, What's Scarier Than an Ancient, Evil, Shape-Shifting Bug?
(/isis/citation/CBB001213085/)
Book
Gold, Barri J.;
(2010)
ThermoPoetics: Energy In Victorian Literature and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001022926/)
Thesis
Badia, Lynn Ann;
(2014)
A Universe of Forces: Energy in Early Twentieth-Century Theory and Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001567589/)
Article
Anna Simon-Stickley;
(2021)
Energy in the Anthropocene: How the concept of energy shaped both our current crisis and its professed solution
(/isis/citation/CBB983863186/)
Article
Ricardo Lopes Coelho;
(2014)
On the Concept of Energy: Eclecticism and Rationality
(/isis/citation/CBB422366227/)
Chapter
Neswald, Elizabeth;
(2014)
Saving the World in the Age of Entropy: John Tyndall and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB001202313/)
Article
Smith, Crosbie;
(2007)
Dreadnought Science: The Cultural Construction of Efficiency and Effectiveness
(/isis/citation/CBB000831457/)
Book
Laidler, Keith James;
(2002)
Energy and the Unexpected
(/isis/citation/CBB000301687/)
Chapter
Pohl-Valero, Stefan;
(2009)
The Circulation of Energy: Thermodynamics, National Culture and Social Progress in Spain, 1868--1890
(/isis/citation/CBB000952583/)
Book
Pohl Valero, Stefan;
(2011)
Energía y cultura: historia de la termodinámica en la España de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX
(/isis/citation/CBB001250520/)
Book
Emch, Gérard G.;
Liu, Chuang;
(2002)
The Logic of Thermostatical Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB000471135/)
Article
Papanelopoulou, Faidra;
(2003)
Paris-Province: Energy Physics in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France
(/isis/citation/CBB000640254/)
Article
Bohang Chen;
(2024)
Entelechy and Energy: Reconsidering Hans Driesch’s Vitalism in The Science and Philosophy of the Organism
(/isis/citation/CBB311286658/)
Article
Thomas M. Turnbull;
(2024)
Redefining Efficiency: US Physicists and the 1970s Energy Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB526682482/)
Article
Creager, Angela N. H.;
(2013)
Timescapes of Radioactive Tracers in Biochemistry and Ecology
(/isis/citation/CBB001211940/)
Book
Paul M. Pulé;
Martin Hultman;
(2021)
Men, Masculinities, and Earth: Contending with the (m)Anthropocene
(/isis/citation/CBB241686528/)
Book
Richard D. G. Irvine;
(2020)
An Anthropology of Deep Time: Geological Temporality and Social Life
(/isis/citation/CBB205554969/)
Article
Robin, Libby;
(2013)
Histories for Changing Times: Entering the Anthropocene?
(/isis/citation/CBB001201439/)
Be the first to comment!