February 6, 2018
Featuring Dr. Bruce Clarke, Horn Professor of Literature and Science at Texas Tech University
"Anachronism in Science Fiction and Science: The Case of H.G. Wells"
"Anachronism: a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which
it exists." How does the idea of anachronism come up in the study of literature and
science? Many scientific ideas have relatively short lives as newer understandings
displace older conceptions. These same scientific conceptions are also intertwined
with traditional as well as modern and contemporary convictions and patterns of thought.
One way to do literature and science scholarship is by turning critical attention
to the unfolding of these crumpled-up historical matters. Moreover, the genre of science
fiction is an especially sensitive seismometer of cultural shifts and tremors. This
talk featuring Dr. Bruce Clarke, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Literature and Science,
will bring these considerations to bear on H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, The Island
of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.
The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization
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Address
Mailing Address: Box 42019 - The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Lubbock, TX 79409-2019 -
Phone
806.834.8289 -
Email
steve.balch@ttu.edu