Science, Technology, and Literature

Catalog description

This online course examines how diverse authors of literature have approached and continue in critically evaluate developments in both science and technology. This course will introduce students to major works in the literary canon through the lens of scientific developments. The historical topics that we will address are the advent of the printing press, the Copernican revolution, Enlightenment thought, the impact of the Industrial Revolution, the rise of modern warfare, medical advances, and ultimately, the age of the Internet. In particular, we will study how writers portrayed the individual and society as well as examined social interactions in the scientific world. How did the introduction of literature of the "masses" ultimately transform plot, character development, and the objective of narrative fiction? Authors and works we will read include: Anonymous, Everyman, William Shaespeare's Sonnets, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Marcel Proust's Swann's Way, George Orwell's 1984, and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. | Prerequisites: EXPOS-UA 1 or EXPOS-UA 4