In literature thermodynamics, Nancy Katherine Hayles (1943-), a Perry greatest thinker (#16) often cited as N. Katherine Hayles, is an American chemist turned English literature scholar noted for []
Overview
Hayles, in several early 1990s books, used of chaos theory, cybernetics, information theory, dissipative structure theory, and statistical mechanics in literature.
In 1991, Hayles, in her Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science, stated the following: [1]
“The essential change is to see chaos as that which makes order possible. Life arises not in spite but because of dissipative processes that are rich in entropy production. Chaos is the womb of life, not its tomb.”
Her 1999 How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, likewise, mentions “thermodynamics” on a dozen or so pages, has a section on “Entropy as a cultural Relay”, wherein she discusses Mark Seltzer’s 1992 discussion on thermodynamics and humanism in his Bodies and Machines. [2]
Education
Hayles completed her BS in chemistry in 1966 at Rochester Institute of Technology, here MS in chemistry in 1969 at the California Institute of Technology, here MA in English literature in 1970 at Michigan State University, and her PhD in English literature at the University of Rochester in 1977. In this regard, Hayles unique educational background seems to fit her well into the two cultures group. Currently, she is professor and director of graduate studies in the literature department of Duke University.
References
1. (a) Hayles, N. Katherine. (1991). Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science (pg. 100). Cornell University Press.
(b) Gold, Barri J. (2010). ThermoPoetics: Energy in Victorian Literature and Science (pg. 245). MIT Press.
2. Hayles, N. Katherine. (1999). How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (thermodynamics, 13+ pgs). University of Chicago Press.
Further reading
● Hayles, N. Katherine. (1991). Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science. University of Chicago Press.
● Hayles, N. Katherine. (2002). “Escape and Constraint: Three Fictions Dream of Moving from Energy to Information”, in: From Energy to Information: Representation in Science and Technology, Art, and Literature (pgs. 235-54), eds. Bruce Clark and Linda Henderson. Stanford University Press.
External links
● N. Katherine Hayles – Wikipedia.
● Hayles, N. Katherine – WorldCat Identities.
● Katherine Hayles (faculty) – Duke University.
