This book investigates the forms of writing in which scientific claims are formulated and announced. Argumentative strategies, compositional rules, and figurative expressions in communication and narrativisation of scientific knowledge are the focus of interdisciplinary contributions by humanities and science scholars. The first part of the book, dedicated to 'Rhetorical and Epistemological Aspects of Science Writing', addresses how scientific pursuits and methods feed into multi-level texts that generate responses within science, society, and culture. The second part, entitled 'Bioscientific Discourses and Narrations', examines popularisations and fictionalisations of science in relation to diversity, deviancy, ageing, illness, reproduction, the evolution of humankind, mathematical models of biomedical systems, and the myth of the heroic scientist. Assessing the narrative impetus and command of literary and meta-discoursive strategies shown by contemporary science writers enhances understanding of the methods and conventions through which the biosciences produce knowledge.
Dr. Paola Spinozzi is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Ferrara. Her research focuses on theories and methods of Interart Studies, ekphrasis, illustration and calligraphy, Utopian Studies, rhetorical strategies and figurative language in scientific discourse, literary representations of scientific theories.
Brian Hurwitz is a family doctor practising in inner London and Professor of Medicine and the Arts at Kings College London. His research encompasses narrative studies in relation to medical practice, ethics, law and clinical case reports. He co-convenes the UKs first MA Programme in Literature and Medicine and directs the Centre for the Humanities and Health at Kings College, which offers both an MSc and MA in Medical Humanities.
Dr. Paola Spinozzi is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Ferrara. Her research focuses on theories and methods of Interart Studies, ekphrasis, illustration and calligraphy, Utopian Studies, rhetorical strategies and figurative language in scientific discourse, literary representations of scientific theories.
