1. Understand the relationship between science, technology and literature and how textual production may have been influenced by science both as a form of enquiry and as a form of popular culture.
Knowledge and understanding

2. Categorise distinct literary discourses as historical phenomena and as functions of specific sets of socio-cultural conditions.
Learning

3. Research and critically analyse key primary texts and connect them to theory of literature influenced by science and technology as a cultural phenomenon.
Enquiry

4. Construct a critical argument or a creative application of the material in a meaningful academic discussion. Application

5. Locate and evaluate relevant literary sources and research material and assess their relevance to your project.
Reflection

8 Discussion Forum Contributions, 250 words each (25%) (LO: 1, 2)

Critical Review, 2000 Words (25%) (LO: 3, 5)

Essay, 4000 words (50%) or Portfolio of Creative Writing, 4000 words (50%) (LO: 1,2,3,4,5)

While the relationship between science, technology and literature might, at first, seem distant, the aim of this module is to discover ways in which these disciplines are in dialogue with and influence each other, to question the boundaries of historically defined disciplines and move towards an interdisciplinary form of research and textual practice. In the aftermath of post-structuralism, using science as a critical framework is emerging as just one of many logical successors. This module will consider the effect of scientific ideas on literature (for example, post-Einsteinian space and time and its effect on poetic form in William Carlos Williams), the influence of technologies on the production of literature, and the ability for literature through this relationship with the scientific to poetically and narratively inquire in its own right rather than using scientific metaphors to represent humanity.

1. Medicine & Darwin-- French and American Naturalism: Thoreau, Emerson, Zola
Texts: Émile Zola “The Experimental Novel” and Doctor Pascal (1893), Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849), Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Uriel” (1847) & “The Rhodora” (1834) Douglas Kahn Earth Sound Earth Signal (2013)

2. Media Archaeologies: The influence of technological process on Modernism

Texts: excepts from James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939) William Carlos Williams, Paterson (1963), Wireless Imagination: Sound Radio and the Avant-Garde (1994), Adelaide Morris, Sound States: Innovative Poetics and Acoustical Technologies (1997)

3. ‘On the Nature of Things’ : Lucretius and its revival—Michel Serres

Texts: Lucretius, “On the Nature of Things”, Michel Serres, The Birth of Physics (1980), Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began (2011)

4. Quantum Literature: Time, Form and Physics
Texts: William Carlos Williams, ‘The Poem as a Field of Action’ (1948), Sarah Howe “Relativity” (2015)

5. Granular Poetics: American Cold War poets: Charles Olson and John Cage

Texts: Peter Middleton, Physics Envy: American Poetry and Science in the Cold War and After (2015), Charles Olson, The Maximus Poems (1960) and “Projective Verse” (1950), John Cage Lecture on the Weather (1975) and Mureau (1972)

6. Mathematics and the rise of Constraint-Based Literature: OULIPO

Texts: Brotchie and Matthews, Oulipo Compendium (2005), Raymond Roussel, How I wrote Certain of my Books (1996), Georges Perec, La Clôture et autres poèmes (1980)

7. Internet and Social Media Poetics : hypertext, email and FLARF

Texts: K. Silem Mohammad, Sonnagrams (2009), Tom Chivers, Adventures in Form (2012)

8. The Xenotext Project: Genetics, Viruses and Mutation

Texts: Christian Bök, The Xenotext (Book 1) (2015)

Distance Learning Delivery:
Introductory essay per module bloc
20 minute lecture per week of video-recorded and media supported material
Guided reading per week
Discussion forum contributions

Primary Texts

Christian Bök, The Xenotext (Book 1) (2015)
John Cage Lecture on the Weather (1975) and Mureau (1972)
Tom Chivers, Adventures in Form (2012)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Uriel” (1847) & “The Rhodora” (1834)
Charles Olson, The Maximus Poems (1960) and “Projective Verse” (1950)
Georges Perec, La Clôture et autres poèmes (1980)
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
William Carlos Williams, Paterson (1963) and ‘The Poem as a Field of Action’ (1948)
Émile Zola “The Experimental Novel” and Doctor Pascal (1893)

Secondary Texts

Brotchie and Matthews, Oulipo Compendium (2005)
Douglas Kahn, Earth Sound Earth Signal (2013)
Wireless Imagination: Sound Radio and the Avant-Garde (1994)
Peter Middleton, Physics Envy: American Poetry and Science in the Cold War and After (2015)
Adelaide Morris, Sound States: Innovative Poetics and Acoustical Technologies (1997)
Raymond Roussel, How I wrote Certain of my Books (1996)
Michel Serres, The Birth of Physics (1980)

Access to Library and IT facilities, especially JSTOR archive, Blackboard.