Degree Year
2008
Document Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Advisor(s)
Carol Tufts
Committee Member(s)
Phyllis Gorfain
Matthew Wright
Keywords
Drama, Science, Frayn, Brecht, Model, Uncertainty, Galileo, Bohr, Heisenberg, Stage
Abstract
My Honors thesis, An Infinity of Questions, explores the performance of science on stage using two plays: The Life of Galileo, challenging the status quo, by Bertolt Brecht and Copenhagen, examining the origins of intention, by Michael Frayn. I focus on these two plays because not only because they impress me personally, but both spring from historical events and are thematically concerned with physics and the atomic bomb. They also make an interesting juxtaposition since Galileo has a decidedly political agenda, while Copenhagen is a philosophic inquiry. I argue that these dramas are exceptional science plays because of how they literally enact the ideas that they examine and bring science to life on stage by means of modeling ideas.
Repository Citation
Miranker, Emily, "An Infinity of Questions: Dramatizing Science on Stage" (2008). Honors Papers. 439.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/439
