Science and the Creative Imagination in Latin America

This book considers the relationship between the humanities and the sciences in a Latin American context. The geographical emphasis is important, given the prominent role of science in the formation of the region's nation-states and its strong presence in Latin American cultural output. Most of the chapters focus on fictional narratives and scientific discourses. Questions of consent, resistance, and ideology in both fields are considered. The historical study of interplay between science and the novel helps identify what people were expected to believe at a given time, and reveals how these beliefs were sustained. This book provides insight into the connection between individual self-understanding and the surrounding world of science, within the broader question of the place of science in Latin American culture. Chapters include: * Darwin in South America: Geology, Imagination and Encounter *Walking Backward to the Future: Time, Travel and Race * Natural Parts and Unnatural Others: A reflection on Patrimony at the Turn of the 19th Century * On the Transition from Realism to the Fantastic in the Argentina of the 1870s: Holmberg and the Six of Cordoba * Literature and Science in Martinez Estrada's Work * The Nature Effect in Latin American Science Publications: The Case of the Journal Redes *Two Scientific Traditions in Martin Fierro * Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in Contemporary Spanish American Fiction * Constructing Postcoloniality: Scientific Enquiries in Cien Anos de Soledad * Holograms and Simulacra: Bioy Casares, Subiela, Piglia * The Desert Poetics of Mario Montalbetti: Writing, Knowledge, Topologies