Ph.D Programme

This Subject Includes

• Course No: HS 634
• Course: Ph.D Programme
• Semester:
• Title: Rhetoric in Western Science Writing
• Stream: English

• Preamble / Objectives (Optional):

  The course introduces students to key texts in the canon of Western science as literary objects that employ

  rhetorical devices and the creative imagination. Students will learn to identify rhetorical figures and

  strategies employed by writers such as Francis Bacon, Margaret Cavendish, Robert Hooke, Charles

  Darwin and Michael Faraday and observable in image-heavy early scientific textbooks as in the De Humani

  Corporis Fabrica (1543) and the Micrographia (1665). They will relate these strategies with historical

  contexts and philosophical concepts to understand how form and content work together in these texts to

  not only establish their central arguments but also to open them up to other interpretive approaches. The

  course thus allows students to develop an understanding of the major genres and modes of science writing,

  Classical rhetoric, and prominent theories in literary and science studies that demonstrate the reciprocal

  connections between the two domains of inquiry.

  Course Content/ Syllabus (as a single paragraph if it is not containing more than one subject. Sub-topics/ Sections may be

  separated by commas(,). Topics may be separated by Semi-Colons(;). Chapters may be separated by Full-Stop(.). While

  starting with broad heading, it may be indicated with Colon symbol before the topics. For example: Multi-variable Calculus:

  Limits of functions, Continuity, …… )

   

  History: major texts and events, ‘the scientific revolution,’ ‘science wars,’ the Sokal Affair; Theories and

  Concepts: natural philosophy, the scientific method, rhetoric, jargon, sociology and philosophy of science,

  paradigm shifts, verifiability and falsifiability, science studies, scientific realism and postmodern critique;

  Rhetorical Strategies: Francis Bacon and the new organ metaphor; Galileo Galilei and the starry epic,

  Andreas Vesalius and the fabrication of the human body; Margaret Cavendish and science as female

  utopia; Robert Hooke and the aesthetics of amplification; Charles Darwin and analogical vision; Michael

  Faraday and the allegory of the candle.

   

  Books (In case UG compulsory courses, please give it as “Text books” and “Reference books”. Otherwise

  give it as “References”.

  Texts: (Format: Authors, Book Title in Italics font, Volume/Series, Edition Number, Publisher, Year.)

  1.

  2.

  3.

  References: (Format: Authors, Book Title in Italics font, Volume/Series, Edition Number, Publisher, Year.)

  1. Charles O’Malley and J. B. Saunders eds., The Illustrations from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, Dover, 2013.

  2. Lisa Jardine and Michael Silverthorne eds., Michael Silverthorne trans., Francis Bacon, The New

  Organon, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

  3. David Cunning ed., Margaret Cavendish: Essential Writings, Oxford University press, 2019.

  4. Robert Hooke, Micrographia, Martyn and Allestry, 1664.

  5. Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, 1962.

  6. Sam Leith, You Talkin’ to Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama, Profile Books, 2019.

  7. Charlotte Sleigh, Literature and Science, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011