The Articulation of Science in the Neo-Victorian Novel

The present study offers a poetics of science in the contemporary historical, and more specifically, neo-Victorian novel. Its starting point is both the profound (dis)similarity between science and history, and Ansgar N¨ unning's path-breaking systematisation of the historical novel. The poetics itself is based on a rigorous development and application of four hypotheeses. These hypotheses are a direct result of the interdisciplinary nature of a study with at least three, if not four, epistemological concerns, for this is a study of « science in a « literary context which deals with « history, specifically history of the « Victorian« period. Each of the four terms forms the basis for one of the hypotheses. The poetics is tested on two novels which have proved to be land-marks in neo-Victorian fiction: Graham Swift's Waterland (1983) and A. S. Byatt's Possession (1990). Contents: Science - History - Nature - Neo-Victorian - 20th-century novel - Postmodern English fiction - Science and literature - Ecocriticism - Poetics of science in the neo-Victorian novel - Graham Swift: Waterland - A. S. Byatt: Possession - Ansgar Nunning.