At the origin of us «nuclear» literature: «Alexander’s Bridge» вy W. Cather.
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Дата
2017
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Назва журналу
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Видавець
Університет імені Альфреда Нобеля
Анотація
The premises of the US “nuclear” literature formation within the comminity’s interest in the scientific
achievements in the field of radioactive studies at the beginning of the XXth century are under study on the
example of novel “Alexander’s Bridge” by W. Cather. Two editional versions of the novel (1912 and 1922)
are under consideration, the analysis of which enables the process of studying the transformations of her
“novel about a disaster” to “a scientific drama”, including the elements of describing pastoral landscapes
next to the images of urban areas in the novel.
The emphasis is made on the premises of how W. Cather’s “nuclear” narrative, represented by her
novel “Alexander’s Bridge” not only laid the foundations of the US “nuclear” literature, which partially
launched the initial stage of “nuclear” identity formation, defined as a set of statements and ideas about
self-determination in the context of national and world nuclear politics – “identity’s significance in terms of
national nuclear ambitions”, but also became the impulse for the subsequent interaction of fundamental
disciples and humanities.
Опис
T
he discovery of the phenomenon of radioactivity in the 1890-ies, according to
Th. Khun, an American historian and philosopher, who was considered to be “the man
who changed the world of science” by “The Observer” [21], defined the beginning of
what is called as “a paradigm shift”. In his work “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” [15],
he used the term “paradigm” to denote the set of beliefs of a particular scientific community,
arguing that the changes in the scientific paradigm enable changes in the narrative which actually
happened within the general interest of society in the scientific achievements in the field of
radioactive studies [15].
Within such transitive conditions of science reception Willa Sibert Cather (1873–1947), an
American writer, wrote the novel “Alexander’s Bridge” (1912) [6], where she laid the background
for the initial stage of “nuclear” identity formation that is defined as a set of institutions and
ideas about self-determination in the context of national and world nuclear policies stressing the
“identity’s significance in terms of national nuclear ambitions” [13], or so-called “atomic” identity by R. Lang’s definition [15].
Ключові слова
“nuclear” literature, “nuclear” narrative, “nuclear” identity, literary response to nuclear research, postcolonialism, W. Cather.