A. S.Byatt, Science, and the Mind/Body Dilemma

摘要

From mathematics, genetics and neurosciences in the Quartet novels,1 natural historyand geology in Possession, entomology in Angels and Insects, taxonomy in TheBiographer’s Tale, to geology and gynaecology in Little Black Book of Stories, A.S.Byatt’s recurrent foray into scientific domains has become a hallmark of her fiction.Her journalism offers further proof of the fruitful interactions she perceivesbetween art and science. In “Strange and Charmed”, she discusses artistic responses toscientific discoveries. In “The Feeling Brain”, she reviews neuroscience scholarAntonio Damasio’s book Looking for Spinoza and expands on Damasio’s concept ofthe “embodied mind” and its artistic renditions. In “Soul Searching”, she uses theneurosciences to investigate literary treatments of the mind/body dilemma. In “FictionInformed by Science”, she describes the way science shaped the stories and charactersof the Quartet. In “Observe the Neurones”, she approaches John Donne’s poetrythrough neuroscience. In “Novel Thoughts”, she explains how science may provide away out of narcissism in art works as she opposes the conflation of sexuality andidentity derived from the prevalence of psychoanalytical thought to “the humancapacity to think”, especially the cognitive process of symbolizing the body throughmetaphor.