Literatures and Cultural Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
Fall 2012
Abstract
Oxford French Literature Professor Frédérique Aït-Touati’s book Fictions of the Cosmos: Science and Literature in the Seventeenth Century is packed full of information—perhaps too packed with information—about all sorts of interesting subjects relating to the interplay of science and literature in the seventeenth century. The book explores literary aspects of science writing, the history of astronomy and optics, and the history of the relationship between fiction and knowledge, especially in the early modern period. Her overall aim in this exploration is to instruct us on the value of fiction in science and the value of science in fiction. To accomplish this, she focuses much of her book around the theme of cosmological voyages written by the likes of Johannes Kepler, Francis Godwin, John Wilkins, Cyrano de Bergerac, Robert Hooke, Margaret Cavendish, Christiaan Huygens, and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. She then utilizes her expertise in literary theory and her studies in the history and philosophy of science to explicate the various literary techniques used in their works.
Recommended Citation
DeSantis, A. J. (2012). Frédérique Aït-Touati, Fictions of the Cosmos: Science and Literature in the Seventeenth Century. HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, 2(2), 387–390. https://doi.org/10.1086/666968
First Page
387
Last Page
390
Publication Title
HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science
DOI
10.1086/666968
Comments
© 2012, University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science.