Literature and Physics: Ways of Seeing

The late nineteenth century witnessed the commencement of a series of rapid revolutions in the fields of scientific, social scientific and cultural knowledge. Einstein brought the logic of classical Newtonian physics to its apparent conclusion, only to be blindsided by the emergence of quantum theory during the interwar period. While figures such as Durkheim and Freud were exploding the coherent subject of Enlightenment discourse, a great raft of modernist artists were gleefully subverting the narratives and styles received from earlier generations. The (relatively) recently invented discipline of ‘English’ experienced its own version of this revolution; in particular, the discovery that language was a much tricksier medium than had ever been suspected was to change fundamentally and forever the understanding of what literature is and how it works.

Literature and Physics: Ways of Seeing brings together in conversation two established LJMU academics – Professor Andrew Newsam (Astrophysics) and Professor Gerry Smyth (English) – to explore parallels and correspondences between their respective disciplines. From Bakhtin to Hawking, Schrödinger to Derrida, nothing is off the table in a general discussion which takes as its point of departure the different ways in which we can and cannot know reality.

Free entry. All welcome!

This event is supported by the Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and organised as part of the Joint Liverpool Universities English and Creative Writing forum seminar series, a collaboration between English and Creative Writing researchers at Liverpool John Moores, University of Liverpool, and Liverpool Hope University.

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Biographies

Professor Andrew Newsam

I started out my career as a research astronomer, and still keep my hand in, mainly through analysing large observational data sets and exploring their statistical properties. However, for the last couple of decades I’ve had an increasing interest in public engagement and education. I now work extensively with artists and arts organisations as a way of reaching audiences not normally engaged with physics and science, including theatre companies, choreographers, visual artists, composers, street theatre performers and garden designers. These interests have led to a drift in my research profile – I’m currently on the supervisory team for more arts PhD students than astronomy ones.

Professor Gerry Smyth

Most of my early research was in the fields of Irish Studies, postcolonial theory and Popular Music Studies. Latterly I’ve developed interests in modernism, environmentalism and maritime culture. I’m currently completing a book for Bloomsbury on the relations between environment and national identity in English genre fiction between 1890 and 1940. My next project will be a book for the British Library, retelling various stories from the Irish mythological cycles. I also retain interests in music and theatre which I get to indulge on occasion.

Host or Publisher RILCH