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Cultural Politics and the Irish Theatre: Samuel Beckett and the New Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Gordon Armstrong
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, University of Rhode Island.

Extract

Lawrence Stone, Princeton Professor Emeritus of History, has recently declared that ‘every cultural enterprise, even science, is at least in part a social construction’. Biologist Jay Gould vehemently agrees. ‘Science’, says Gould, ‘is done by individuals, whose conclusions are influenced by the beliefs they bring with them.’ The contamination factor is unavoidable. On the other hand, Erwin Schrodinger, the renowned quantum physicist, brought to biology experimental truths that may take us to the edge of the universe. For him, the contamination factor was intentional. Beginning in the 1940s, his work had a direct effect on the writings of Samuel Beckett.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1993

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References

Notes

1. Stone, Lawrence, ‘The Revolution Over the Revolution’, New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXIX, No. 11, 06 11, 1992, p. 47.Google Scholar

2. Smith, John Maynard, ‘Taking a Chance on Evolution’, New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXIX, No. 9, 05 14, 1992, p. 34.Google Scholar

3. Knowlson, James, catalogue: Samuel Beckett: An Exhibition, exhibition: Reading University Library, 0507 1971. London: Turret Books, 1971, p. 52.Google Scholar

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5. Schrodinger, Erwin, What Is Life! The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944, repr. 1955).Google Scholar

6. Damasio, Antonio R. and Damasio, Hanna, ‘Brain and Language’, Mind and Brain, Scientific American, 09, 1992, p. 89.Google Scholar

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22. Armstrong, Gordon, ‘Unintentional Fallacies’, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Fall 1992, Vol VII, No 2, pp. 727.Google Scholar

23. See the popular science development of this idea in Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene. OxfordUniversity Press, 1976, 1989.Google Scholar