The presence of science in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow

Authors

  • Pedro Dolabela Chagas

Keywords:

Thomas Pynchon, Epistemology, Sociology of science, Contemporary novel,

Abstract

The essay describes the sociological and epistemological aspects of the presence of science in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s rainbow, wherein the theme serves as a link to contemporary history, also having implications on the plot and on its narrative construction. A dialogue with Weber helps detect the critical component of Pynchon’s approach to science, while a dialogue with contemporary epistemology locates his skepticism towards the idealization of scientific racionality and of its ordinary practice. The interconnection of the three items that compose the exposition – “causality”, “bureaucracy” and “idea” – places science as a background for the analysis of Gravity’s rainbow’s understanding of the world contemporary to its release in 1973.

Issue

Section

Ciência e literatura