John Banville, Doctor Copernicus

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

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:

The dream of certainty, of arriving at a simple, elegant, and above all concrete answer, has had to

2256 words

Citation: Palazzolo, Pietra. "Doctor Copernicus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5542, accessed 28 March 2024.]

5542 Doctor Copernicus 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.