John Banville, Doctor Copernicus

Pietra Palazzolo (University of Essex)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1976

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Banville's scientific tetralogy (1976-1986) – Doctor Copernicus (1976), Kepler (1985), The Newton Letter (1982) and Mefisto (1986) – comes after the self-contained worlds of his first two novels, Nightspawn (1971) and Birchwood (1984). The tetralogy traces an interesting trajectory in historical and scientific development from early modernity to the present, highlighting an intriguing interplay between scientific knowledge and literature. In an article published in the New York Times in 1985, “Physics and Fiction: Order from Chaos”, Banville suggested a kinship between modern science and literature, in particular in terms of cognitive uncertainties, as propounded by Heisenberg: <…

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2256 words

Citation: Palazzolo, Pietra. "Doctor Copernicus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5542, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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