Heydenreich A (2021)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2021
Publisher: De Gruyter
Edited Volumes: Physics and Literature. Concepts – Transfer – Aestheticization
Series: Literatur- und Naturwissenschaften
City/Town: Berlin, Boston
Book Volume: 3
Pages Range: 49-103
URI: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110481112-003/html
DOI: 10.1515/9783110481112-003
The following two chapters offer an analysis of the scientific modeling process of Albert Einstein’s treatise on special relativity “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper” from 1905 [“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (1989)]. The first chapter reconstructs both Einstein’s scientific modeling process and its narrative strategies for the development of the special theory of relativity. Besides considering the argumentative and descriptive discourse levels of Einstein’s treatise, my paper analyzes the employed narrative strategies and their epistemic functions. Hereby main issues of a proposed narratology of science are discussed. How can concepts be transferred from classical narratology to science narratology in order to explore the epistemic functions of narrativity in scientific treatises? What is the epistemic function of the factual ‘we-narrator’ as a principle of form-organization in a scientific treatise? Can one elaborate on techniques of internal and external focalization not only in literary texts, but also in Einstein’s thought experiments? How can one (re-)define concepts of post-classical narratology like eventfulness, experientiality and tellability when adressing scientific discourses? The first chapter shows how the techniques of internal and external focalization are employed by Einstein in thought experiments for the reconceptualization of time and space and for the demonstration of the relativity of simultaneity. The second chapter analyzes the same treatise from a systematical perspective and takes Einstein’s metatheoretical reflections in “Physics and Reality” into consideration in order to describe the process of interformation, its semiologic foundations and the resulting epistemic transformations.
APA:
Heydenreich, A. (2021). Epistemic Narrativity in Albert Einstein's Treatise on Special Relativity: A Narratological Approach to "The Electrodynamicsof Moving Bodies". The Process of Interformation (Part I). In Aura Heydenreich, Klaus Mecke (Eds.), Physics and Literature. Concepts – Transfer – Aestheticization. (pp. 49-103). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
MLA:
Heydenreich, Aura. "Epistemic Narrativity in Albert Einstein's Treatise on Special Relativity: A Narratological Approach to "The Electrodynamicsof Moving Bodies". The Process of Interformation (Part I)." Physics and Literature. Concepts – Transfer – Aestheticization. Ed. Aura Heydenreich, Klaus Mecke, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021. 49-103.
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