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Merging Literature and Science: Shakespeare Through the Scope of Quantum Physics and Lacan

Vierrether, Tanja
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460134452

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
The arts and the sciences have coexisted for centuries, yet there have been few instances in modern academic history in which scientists and literary scholars worked together side by side, influencing each other’s research and benefitting from their varying approaches and ideas. This work examines the beneficial effects that may result from a discourse between those two cultures in order to help promote a better understanding of the importance of interdisciplinarity. I chose quantum theory as a representative of the sciences and Lacan’s psychoanalysis as a representative of the arts to demonstrate that a shared metalinguistic coding system can provide the basis for successful communication. Therefore, the first part of this thesis explains the two theories without using jargon or mathematical formulae to make them more accessible to a broader audience. In the next part, I analyze two Shakespearean plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet, through the scope of these theories, utilizing both their similarities and their differences. Working from the perspective of a literary scholar, my final claim is that literature can be used as an analogy to better understand both quantum theory and psychoanalysis, while at the same time, these two theories can help us understand and discover new meaning in literary works. This demonstrates that no discipline is superior to the other, and that bridging the communicational gap between them in order to combine multiple approaches and their different viewpoints will have beneficial results for both cultures, opening up an entire new spectrum of ideas and theories.
Erin Labbie, Dr. (Advisor)
Bill Albertini, Dr. (Committee Member)
74 p.
Literature
Literature; Shakespeare; Science; Lacan; Quantum Theory; Literature and Science; Shakespeare and Science; Science and Psychoanalysis; Shakespeare and Lacan; Hamlet; A Midsummer Nights Dream;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Vierrether, T. (2016). Merging Literature and Science: Shakespeare Through the Scope of Quantum Physics and Lacan [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460134452

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Vierrether, Tanja. Merging Literature and Science: Shakespeare Through the Scope of Quantum Physics and Lacan . 2016. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460134452.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Vierrether, Tanja. "Merging Literature and Science: Shakespeare Through the Scope of Quantum Physics and Lacan ." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460134452

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1460134452
10,297
© 2016, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Merging Literature and Science: Shakespeare Through the Scope of Quantum Physics and Lacan by Tanja Vierrether is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.