Using Possible-Worlds Fiction to Mediate Knowledge Production in the Exact Sciences: Different worlds and different lives in Nina Allen’s science fiction

Lehmann, Zoe Christina (April 2022). Using Possible-Worlds Fiction to Mediate Knowledge Production in the Exact Sciences: Different worlds and different lives in Nina Allen’s science fiction (Unpublished). In: BSLS Annual Conference. Manchester University. 7th-9th April 2022.

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The seeming acceleration of knowledge production in the exact and natural sciences brings with it an inevitable shift in humanity’s sense of our relation to the world and to the universe. In 1992, for instance, the existence of three exoplanets had been recorded – as of October 2021, nearly 5000 have been catalogued. Moreover, spectrometry enables burgeoning discussion about habitability and exobiology, discussions which while theoretical, become acute in relation to our roles as failed caretakers of our own planet. This paper will examine the ways in which possible-worlds fiction participates in this re-navigation, using the SF novels of contemporary British author Nina Allen. Allen’s fictional worlds are not fully-fledged alternate universes, but, just like all those exoplanets, remain possibilities just out of reach even within the novels. Nonetheless, knowledge (even theoretical) of these possible worlds is a catalyst to radical shifts in characters’ sense of being-in-the-world. I will explore what lessons can be learned from these renegotiations for our relationship with current scientific knowledge production.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of English Languages and Literatures
UniBE Contributor:	Lehmann, Zoe Christina
Subjects:	800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 820 English & Old English literatures 400 Language > 420 English & Old English languages
Language:	English
Submitter:	Zoe Christina Lehmann Imfeld
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2022 12:34
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 16:29
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/175356