A common practice among contemporary authors has been the exploitation and, concomitantly, the questioning of other fields of discourse than the literary one. This practice developed as an attempt to oppose nineteenth century Realism, defying thus the essential concept of truth of representation. This opposition can be observed especially in the unreliability of the characters as regards their vision or perception of the world. The involvement of a mediating consciousness or mediating language of the fictional character becomes thus responsible for altering the veridicity of the narration and for creating the so called suspension of disbelief.
The short story 'On Terms' written by Christine Brooke-Rose was published in the collection 'Go When You See the Green Man Walking' in 1970, and it is an experimentalist, ultra-modern piece of literature in structure, ideas and technique. Brooke-Rose has always managed to displace herself from any genre, any national tradition or literary context by using a highly innovative overlap of different fields of knowledge. This story features the discourse of astrophysics as an organizing metaphor of the surrounding world and of the character's identity.
The uncertainty that is cast upon the ontological status of the character, the difficulty of drawing a line between what is real (within the fictional world, of course) and what belongs to the imaginary, remains the reader.s responsibility concerning the text and the disclosure of its true message.
This paper will deal with the scientific discourse as an element fundamental to creating a semblance of truth, the language of astrophysics being the driving force that shapes the instability of the character's ontological status. Christine Brooke-Rose uses the paradoxes inherent in science to create a universe of instability which is strongly held together by the use of language. Not only the jargon of astrophysics but also various post-modernist narrative techniques serve here to stage a doubtful representation of truth and to illustrate the ambiguity of a character at a crossroads of life and death.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Body
a. The Uncertainty
i. The Uncertainty Principle in Science
ii. The Concept of Truth and its Alteration
b. Representation of Life and Fragility of Existence
i. Entre-deux: Suspended between Two Levels of Existence
c. Experimental Style and Innovative Technique
i. The Jargon of Astrophysics and the Break with Conventions
3. Conclusion
4. Bibliography
Objectives and Research Focus
This paper examines Christine Brooke-Rose's short story "On Terms" through the lens of scientific and postmodern discourses. It investigates how the author utilizes the jargon of astrophysics and scientific paradoxes to mirror the ontological instability of a character existing in a liminal space between life and death.
- Application of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to literary character analysis.
- Exploration of Schrödinger’s cat paradox as a metaphor for the protagonist's condition.
- Analysis of linguistic experimentation and the rejection of traditional narrative realism.
- Interpretation of the protagonist’s "postmortem" narrative as a search for ontological order.
- Evaluation of how scientific metaphors reshape the reader’s perception of reality and truth.
Excerpt from the Book
i. The Uncertainty Principle in Science
One of science’s great paradoxes that Brooke-Rose chose to construct her short story on is the uncertainty principle formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927. Through scientific experiments Heisenberg has been able to show that matter and radiation possess a dual character since they display at times properties of both waves and particles. In order to justify the apparent ambiguity of scientific phenomena, he draws on the fact that the description of atomic processes is succumbed to the limitations imposed by our language (Heisenberg 1949, 10f.). Likewise, determining both the position and the momentum of a particle is not possible through the medium of language (Heisenberg 1949, 15). This leads us to the conclusion that language is an impediment when it comes to describing reality in that it encompasses a trace of uncertainty which is inscrutable to the human mind. This is, of course, highly relevant to On Terms since the short story revolves around the idea of the uncertainty of life and death.
Another scientific experiment related to the uncertainty principle that is especially relevant to illustrating the ambiguity of the character’s self-proclaimed existence is Erwin Schrödinger’s cat paradox. In conducting his experiment, Schrödinger disposed of a steel box in which he placed a Geiger counter, a small amount of a radioactive substance and a living cat that had no contact with the radioactive material. Along with these items he built an electric circuit using a hammer designed to be dropped and to smash a beaker containing a deadly acid gas. If an atom of the radioactive substance decayed, the Geiger counter would detect it and activate the circuit that released the hammer which spilled the poisoning gas. The cat’s life or death depended thus on the potential event that the radioactive material may or may not have decayed within the box. In terms of quantum mechanics, the state of the cat can be regarded as both alive and dead until the box is opened.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the theoretical context of postmodern literature and outlines the focus on Christine Brooke-Rose’s use of scientific discourse to challenge traditional realist narratives.
2. Body: This section explores how scientific uncertainty and the paradox of the "living dead" are used to construct the protagonist's ontological instability.
a. The Uncertainty: Analyzes the theoretical application of scientific uncertainty in the narrative.
i. The Uncertainty Principle in Science: Discusses how Heisenberg’s principles reflect the limitations of language and the ambiguity of the protagonist's existence.
ii. The Concept of Truth and its Alteration: Examines how the protagonist’s subjective perception distorts reality, making truth a fluid and unreachable concept.
b. Representation of Life and Fragility of Existence: Explores the existential state of the protagonist, who is portrayed as a ghost-like figure caught between two worlds.
i. Entre-deux: Suspended between Two Levels of Existence: Details the liminal state of the character as she attempts to resolve past frustrations through a simulated existence.
c. Experimental Style and Innovative Technique: Investigates the structural and stylistic choices that categorize the story as a break with literary conventions.
i. The Jargon of Astrophysics and the Break with Conventions: Analyzes the use of astrophysics as an organizing metaphor and the impact of narrative discontinuity.
3. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings, concluding that the story uses scientific paradoxes to represent the fragmented nature of human reality and the construction of subjective truth.
4. Bibliography: Lists the primary and secondary sources utilized in this study.
Keywords
Christine Brooke-Rose, On Terms, Postmodernism, Astrophysics, Uncertainty Principle, Schrödinger’s cat, Ontological status, Scientific discourse, Narrative experimentation, Literary theory, Realism, Identity, Existentialism, Paradox, Simulacra
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research paper?
The paper focuses on the short story "On Terms" by Christine Brooke-Rose, analyzing how she incorporates scientific concepts and astrophysical jargon into a postmodern literary framework to explore the ambiguity of existence.
What are the central themes discussed in the work?
The central themes include the ontological instability of characters, the intersection of scientific and literary discourses, the nature of truth in fiction, and the human struggle to impose order on a chaotic experience of life and death.
What is the primary objective of this analysis?
The objective is to demonstrate how Brooke-Rose uses scientific paradoxes, such as the uncertainty principle and Schrödinger’s cat, as metaphors to illustrate the fragmented identity of a protagonist suspended between life and death.
Which scientific methods or theories are applied?
The author applies Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Erwin Schrödinger’s cat paradox to explain the narrative structure and the protagonist's ambiguous state of being.
What does the main body of the paper cover?
The main body covers the application of scientific uncertainty to the text, the representation of life as a fragile state of existence, and an analysis of the author’s experimental writing style and its break with realist traditions.
What keywords best describe this study?
Key terms include postmodernism, scientific discourse, ontological status, narrative experimentation, and the works of Christine Brooke-Rose.
How does the protagonist’s use of "pseudo-lucid" moments reflect the scientific metaphors in the story?
Her "pseudo-lucid" moments are treated as a form of simulation, mirroring the quantum mechanical state of a particle that is both one thing and another, until the final outcome of her death is determined by the "observation" of reality.
Why does the author argue that the story lacks traditional coherence?
The lack of coherence is an intentional experimental technique; by discarding traditional punctuation and syntax, Brooke-Rose forces the reader to confront the impossibility of a stable, "decipherable" universe, which reflects the postmodern condition.
- Citar trabajo
- Maria Baciu (Autor), 2014, Uncertainty of Life and Death in Christine Brooke-Rose's 'On Terms', Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/296177
