<p>My dissertation is situated at
the intersection of modernism, print culture, and early-twentieth-century
post-Newtonian physics, namely relativity theory and quantum theory. I
investigate the ways in which the emerging concept of the unknowable—loosely
defined as that which is beyond knowledge but maintains an influence on what
can be known—catalyzed a cultural reorientation away from Victorian notions of
positivism and progress and toward those aspects of reality that resist
knowledge. Although a great deal of critical attention has been paid to
modernism’s epistemological uniqueness, scholars are only beginning to
acknowledge that concurrent revolutions in physics both reflected and
influenced modernists’ conceptions of history, subjectivity, and aesthetics.
Scholars such as Gillian Beer, Michael Whitworth, and Mark S. Morrisson have
demonstrated that print and popular culture provided crucial avenues through
which scientific ideas were disseminated in British society. Furthermore, their
research has shown that modernist authors not only read popular science
material but also published their work alongside articles about science in a
variety of magazines, journals, and newspapers. Building on these connections,
I show that books and periodicals served as platforms for dialogue and
ideological exchange between science and literature as both disciplines
increasingly recognized and grappled with the pervasive influence of the
unknowable. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/8945219 |
| Date | 13 August 2019 |
| Creators | Joshua R Galat (6989702) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Engaging_the_Unknowable_Modernism_Science_and_Epistemology/8945219 |
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