Imagining the Universe: From Dante to Contemporary Cosmology

Catalog description

Is it possible to imagine the universe? What does it mean to grasp, or attempt to grasp, the totality that surrounds us? What is at stake between the cosmos and the individual? Is there such a thing as an objective image of the universe, and what happens when different images of the universe are put into dialogue? This is a literature course. In our classes, we will look at these questions by testing the (im)possibilities of literature to help us make sense of the universe around us and our place in it. We will follow the works of various authors from the Italian tradition: Dante Alighieri, Ludovico Ariosto, Galileo Galilei, Giacomo Leopardi, Primo Levi, Oriana Fallaci, Italo Calvino, and Daniele del Giudice. Alongside our primary focus, we will also explore texts of authors from other literary contexts, such as Homer, Virgil, Lucretius, Farid al-Din Attar, Luís de Camões, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Cyrano de Bergerac, Blaise Pascal, Descartes, John Milton, H. P. Lovecraft, Vicente Huidobro, and Jorge Luis Borges. We will also analyze how contemporary scientists such as Guido Tonelli and Carlo Rovelli, among others, use literature to organize their scientific discourses. Finally, we will watch and discuss the movie Interstellar (2014) by Cristopher Nolan as an example of how cinema deals with these same questions. We will also organize guided stargazing sessions at the Student Observatory at Stanford. The texts we read grapple in various ways with the challenges of imagining a synthetic view of our universe. They invite us to engage with the cosmos - sometimes in an attitude of contemplation and enthusiasm, and other times with doubt and fear, but always with wonder. This course argues for the centrality of literature and the arts in helping us make sense of the universe today.