Imagining Humans in the Age of DNA: Genetics and Contemporary British Fiction

摘要

This thesis examines to what extent modern genetics has influenced novelists to adoptuda more deterministic view of human beings. It has been claimed that molecularudbiology, behavioural genetics and evolutionary psychology have challengedudtraditional ideas about humankind. My hypothesis is that if gene-centred disciplinesudchanged the way we see ourselves, then this would have implications for the literaryudnovel, a genre that depends greatly on representations of humans.udIn analysing how genetics was incorporated in contemporary British fiction, Iudtry to uncover the ways in which the human characters deal with – or are constrainedudor empowered by – scientific products or concepts. In addition, I seek to understandudwhat novelists know and think about human genetics, and whether they believe itudinfluenced their stories. Attention is also paid to novelists’ relationship with scientists’udcognitive authority. Specifically, I am interested in whether experts and scientificudknowledge were positioned hierarchically above lay audiences and other forms ofudknowledge.udTo answer those questions, extended semi-structured interviews and textualudanalysis were chosen as main research methods. Six literary novels were selected forudanalysis. This corpus consists of: A.S. Byatt’s A Whistling Woman, CaroleudCadwalladr’s The Family Tree, Margaret Drabble’s The Peppered Moth, MaggieudGee’s The Ice People, Simon Mawer’s Mendel’s Dwarf and David Mitchell’s CloududAtlas.udThe main conclusion of this project is that novelists are able to incorporateudideas about genetics in their texts without simply perpetuating reductionist discourses.udLiterary novels offer several advantages compared to the expository writing: they areuda flexible literary form; deal imaginatively with the human experience; andudeffortlessly accommodate multiple perspectives, open-ended questions and complexudideas such as doubt and ambiguity. As such, this genre affords the opportunity toudexplore contemporary science as a provisional, contingent and socially-embeddedudendeavour.