LITERATURE AND SCIENCE: A STUDY OF SELECT SCIENCE PLAYS

Abstract

Abstract The “Two Cultures” debate encapsulates the nuances of mutual interactions between literature and science. The present work situates itself in the field of literature and science by analysing select science plays spanning over the different branches of science. This research work explores the following plays: Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo (1943), Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee’s Inherit the Wind (1955), Heinar Kipphardt’s In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer (1964), Mohan Maharishi’s Einstein (1996), Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen (1998), Shelagh Stephenson’s An Experiment with an Air Pump (2000), and Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann’s Oxygen (2001). The thesis addresses the issue of authority in science plays and investigates the responsibilities on scientists, their agency to dissent and the interaction of scientific authority with military, religious and judicial authorities. It also undertakes a literary analysis of the plays, focusing on literary devices and techniques such as allusions, wordplays, rhetoric, prosody, alliteration, humour, and sarcasm. Further, the work examines the utilisations of stage props, costumes, and other scenographic elements in science plays. The thesis is attentive to the lack of representation of women scientists and women playwrights in this field. The final part of this research work explores the lives and struggles of Rosalind Franklin in Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51 (2015), Henrietta Leavitt in Lauren Gunderson’s The Silent Sky (2015), and Emelie Du Chatelet in Emilie (2019). As there is a scarcity of scholarly work on science plays in literature and science, this thesis establishes a case for studying these plays as a viable medium of research by providing unique viewpoints for exploring the thespian art.