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Science, Literature, and the Work of the Imagination

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The Palgrave Handbook of Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature and Science

Part of the book series: Palgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science ((PAHALISC))

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Abstract

The essay explores common concerns regarding the biospheric, geologic, and atmospheric foundations of the blue planet in modern literary and scientific enterprises. I argue that the imagination as a creative force governing the mental faculties of thinking, remembering, and fantasizing is key to both enterprises. On the one hand, the imagination spurs speculative conceptualization of models before they materialize: it mediates what can come to be. On the other, the self-reflective dimension of the imagination locates what one makes in the past and present. I trace critical conversations of the last forty years on the role imagination that ask: At what cost do we pursue modern science? What are the consequences of separating the modern sciences from philosophical questions or social thought?

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Bishnupriya Ghosh

Authors
  1. Bishnupriya Ghosh
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Neel Ahuja

  2. University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Monique Allewaert

  3. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Lindsey Andrews

  4. Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Gerry Canavan

  5. Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX, USA

    Rebecca Evans

  6. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Nihad M. Farooq

  7. University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    Erica Fretwell

  8. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Nicholas Gaskill

  9. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Patrick Jagoda

  10. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Erin Gentry Lamb

  11. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Jennifer Rhee

  12. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Britt Rusert

  13. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Matthew A. Taylor

  14. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Aarthi Vadde

  15. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Priscilla Wald

  16. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Rebecca Walsh

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Ghosh, B. (2020). Science, Literature, and the Work of the Imagination. In: Ahuja, N., et al. The Palgrave Handbook of Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature and Science. Palgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48244-2_9

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