01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page i Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#347 Fiction Refracts Science 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page ii Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#34 This page intentionally left blank 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page iii Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#3 Fiction Refracts Science Modernist Writers from Proust to Borges Allen Thiher University of Missouri Press Columbia and London 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page iv Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#34 Copyright © 2005by The Curators of the University of Missouri University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201 Printed and bound in the United States of America All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thiher, Allen, 1941– Fiction refracts science : modernist writers from Proust to Borges / Allen Thiher. p. cm. Summary: “Examines the relationship between science and the fiction developed by modernists, including Musil, Proust, Kafka, and Joyce. Looks at Pascalian and Newtonian cosmology, Darwinism, epistemology, relativity theory, quantum mechanics, the development of modernist and postmodern fiction, positivism, and finally works by Woolf, Faulkner, and Borges”—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8262-1580-7(alk. paper) 1. Literature and science. 2. Science in literature. 3. Fiction—20th century—History and criticism. I. Title. PN3352.S34T55 2005 809'.9336—dc22 2004029232 ™ This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984. Designer: Stephanie Foley Typesetter: Phoenix Type, Inc. Printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc. Typeface: Granjon 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page v Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#347 For Irma 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page vi Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#34 This page intentionally left blank 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page vii Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#3 Contents Acknowledgments ix A Brief Overview xi Introduction Prefatory Thoughts on Two or More Cultures 1 Chapter One What the Modernists Knew about the History of Science from Pascal to Heisenberg 18 Chapter Two Robert Musil and the Dilemma of Modernist Epistemology 59 Chapter Three Proust, Poincaré, and Contingency 100 Chapter Four Kafka’s Search for Laws 135 Chapter Five James Joyce and the Laws of Everything 172 Chapter Six Modernist Thought Experiments after Joyce 211 Chapter Seven Conclusion: Science and Postmodernity 246 Bibliography 277 Index 287 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page viii Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:# This page intentionally left blank 01 Thiher fm1, p i-xiv 3/11/05 12:07 PM Page ix Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD :Pxt jobs archive:#34 Acknowledgments This book began to take shape in courses taught at the University of Missouri-Columbia and in research undertaken for a preceding volume about literature and science. It took on its precise form during a year spent as a visit- ing fellow at Clare Hall at Cambridge University. I give hearty thanks to the Research Council at the University of Missouri for the research leave that al- lowed me to take advantage of the stimulating environment and the research facilities at Cambridge, and to Clare Hall and its fellows for their generous re- ception and especially for the many discussions that stimulated my work and ideas. I would also like to express my gratitude to the students and faculty in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge who or- ganized reading groups from which I profited, as well as to Cambridge’s Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, whose open doors granted a neo- phyte cosmologist entry into colloquia on some of the most exciting research taking place today. Specific debts of gratitude must also be expressed to those who read part or all of this work in manuscript, such as Sandy Camargo, Au- drey Glauert, Noah Heringman, David Hayman, and Timothy Materer. And of course special thanks to Irma Dimitrova for readings and much more. ix