Introduction
Throughout the twentieth century and beyond there has been a clear correlation between literary theory and scientific philosophical enquiry. Both have become intrinsically linked with each other, with this direct and complicated relationship being most evident in the field of poetry and poetic theory. Within this field there has been a continued but arguably fractured questioning of this enduring relationship. I propose that there have been within the modern age two main lines of thought, or binarism, within the remit of poetry that engage with the science of the twentieth century and have been well established, and noted positions. These two opposing stances fall into the categories of Consilience as expounded by E O Wilson …show more content…
It is this active engagement by contemporary avant-garde writers, with the renewed interrelation in the twenty-first century between the two fields in these three modes of epistemological enquiry that I believe requires both categorisation and examination. This is certainly an area that deserves and requires attention given, as Peter Middleton remarks, how “Conflicts and affinities between science and poetry have had a profound effect on the conceptional architecture of modern literary criticism.” This effect and it’s on going reverberations within the field of poetry, whilst difficult to research given its propensity for “feedback loops”, and multifaceted forms of interaction, is crucial to understanding the relationship between the two epistemic fields relationship to one another. As well as also expanding on the role each have taken in extending modes of thought and understanding within the modern age. As the poet and theorist Veronica Forest-Thomson once commented “the human consciousness cannot get at reality without mediation”, it is in this strain of thought, of the importance of poetry as mediator to the sciences and ‘reality’ within the early twenty-first century that I hope to be explore and
Throughout the twentieth century and beyond there has been a clear correlation between literary theory and scientific philosophical enquiry. Both have become intrinsically linked with each other, with this direct and complicated relationship being most evident in the field of poetry and poetic theory. Within this field there has been a continued but arguably fractured questioning of this enduring relationship. I propose that there have been within the modern age two main lines of thought, or binarism, within the remit of poetry that engage with the science of the twentieth century and have been well established, and noted positions. These two opposing stances fall into the categories of Consilience as expounded by E O Wilson …show more content…
It is this active engagement by contemporary avant-garde writers, with the renewed interrelation in the twenty-first century between the two fields in these three modes of epistemological enquiry that I believe requires both categorisation and examination. This is certainly an area that deserves and requires attention given, as Peter Middleton remarks, how “Conflicts and affinities between science and poetry have had a profound effect on the conceptional architecture of modern literary criticism.” This effect and it’s on going reverberations within the field of poetry, whilst difficult to research given its propensity for “feedback loops”, and multifaceted forms of interaction, is crucial to understanding the relationship between the two epistemic fields relationship to one another. As well as also expanding on the role each have taken in extending modes of thought and understanding within the modern age. As the poet and theorist Veronica Forest-Thomson once commented “the human consciousness cannot get at reality without mediation”, it is in this strain of thought, of the importance of poetry as mediator to the sciences and ‘reality’ within the early twenty-first century that I hope to be explore and