1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910272354503321

Autore

Hayles N. Katherine <1943->

Titolo

The Cosmic Web : Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century / / N. Katherine Hayles

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca : , : Cornell University Press, , 1984

©1984

ISBN

0-8014-1742-2

1-5017-2297-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (208 pages)

Disciplina

809/.93356

Soggetti

Literature and science

Literature, Modern - 20th century - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Bibliography: p. 199-204.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part I. Mathematical and Scientific Models -- Chapter I. Spinning The Web -- Part II. Literary Strategies -- Chapter 2. Drawn to the Web -- 3. Evasion: The Field of the Unconscious in D. H. Lawrence -- Chapter 4. Ambivalence -- 5. Subversion -- Chapter 6. Caught In The Web Cosmology and the Point of (No) Return in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow -- References Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.