The Cosmic Web
Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century
Published on 21. December 1984
Book
Hardback
210 pages
978-0-8014-1742-9 (ISBN)
Description
From the central concept of the field-which depicts the world as a mutually interactive whole, with each part connected to every other part by an underlying field- have come models as diverse as quantum mathematics and Saussure's theory of language. In The Cosmic Web, N. Katherine Hayles seeks to establish the scope of the field concept and to assess its importance for contemporary thought. She then explores the literary strategies that are attributable directly or indirectly to the new paradigm; among the texts at which she looks closely are Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Nabokov's Ada, D. H. Lawrence's early novels and essays, Borges's fiction, and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.
Reviews / Votes
Scientists have been invoking the 'field model' concept for decades. But literary critics, who are usually resistant to the application of scientific concepts in literary criticism, have rarely related imaginative literature to the field model. N. Katherine Hayles, a trained chemist and literary critic, has now done so in a fine book that will pave the way for many others interested in this nexus. Hayles's procedure is exemplary.- G. S. Rousseau (Isis)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paper over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
907 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8014-1742-9 (9780801417429)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
N. Katherine Hayles
The Cosmic Web
Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century
E-Book
03/2018
Cornell University Press
€4.49
Available for download
Person
N. Katherine Hayles is James B. Duke Professor of Literature at Duke University. She is the author of many books, including How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis, Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary, and My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts.