This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1075547008330921v1 31/1/29    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Russell, N. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The New Men

Scientists at Work in Popular British Fiction Between the Early 1930s and the Late 1960s

Imperial College London, nick.russell{at}imperial.ac.uk

Science communication should include some account of doing science as well as of its product; new scientific knowledge. Fiction and drama are well placed to communicate the process of doing science although, in practice, popular novels on this theme are rare. One exception is the collectivist period in British history from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, when several science-trained authors wrote popular novels about doing science. They gave reasonably sophisticated accounts of the practice, philosophy, sociology and politics of science and their representations of these activities are outlined here. If historical context was a major factor in these novels being written, this may explain why contemporary popular fiction about science is hard to publish. The economic upheavals of 2008 may herald a new era of managed capitalism which might trigger a fresh wave of fictional representations of science.

Key Words: communication of scientific process • science-trained novelists • science in fiction • British collectivist political economy

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Science Communication, Vol. 31, No. 1, 29-56 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1075547008330921


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?