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‘IF NOT PRECISELY A SCIENCE’: The Provocations of Literary Studies
Journal
Mapping Scientific Method: Disciplinary Narrations
Date Issued
2022-01-01
Author(s)
Sreekumar, Sharmila
Abstract
Sharmila Sreekumar takes the watertight separation of literature from literary studies as a fundamental entry point into the larger argument. While the former is frequently considered a creative pursuit and/or an art, the latter, though not precisely a science, is seen to be associated with knowledge or learning. Sreekumar elucidates the provocative relationships that literary studies establishes with science - as it tries to consolidate itself, while seeking methodological and definitional possibilities. Hers is not a prescriptive rendering of what such a ‘legitimate’ invocation of science and scientific method should look like. Instead, she delineates the historical impulses that have characterised literary studies since its inception.