SciLiterature. Narrativizing science

Workshop over 2 days: "SciLiterature. Narrativizing Science" - April 2012 Seminar over 2 days: "SciLiterature. Narrativizing Science" November 2012 Forms of scientific representation vary according to the intended audience and the medium. The writings of science and on science by scientists and creative writers invite an assessment of language as the medium adequate to such representation. Although scientific language tends to specialization, it can also pursue accessibility. The transposition of scienti fic data into intelligible, widely accessible notions entails acts of translation from specialized to non-specialized knowledge. Science writing includes: (didactic) scientific articles and books; popular science, which conventionally defines prose writin g in which scientific knowledge is made available to non-specialist readers; literature that talks about science. Scientists rely on language to formulate, fix, and convey assumptions, hypotheses, and methods. Writing of science searches for aestheticall y accomplished ways of expressing scientific concepts. Because scientific notions are mediated by language, they are constantly exposed to new forms of verbalization which disclose new meanings. Translating in accessible or creative ways what has been def ined in scientific terms proper entails actively taking part in the production of and response to scientific knowledge. Multiple forces work together dynamically: the exposition of scientific methods and theories through explanation and argumentation; nar rativization and fictionalization through different modes of emplotments; self-reflexivity and meta-discourse, evidenced in a conscious use of language as a medium that transforms scientific knowledge in representation. The corpus under investigation span s from the beginning of modern science in the Sixteenth century to the contemporary age.