The Scientist as ‘Problematic Individual’ in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

Our contribution examines the construction and the functions of complex and multi-dimensional scientist characters in contemporary fiction. Our analysis of three very different novels from different branches of Anglophone literature – Ian McEwan’s Solar , Allegra Goodman’s Intuition , and Jaspreet Singh’s Helium – seeks to demonstrate that this phenomenon may be recent but is widespread in contemporary fiction. It can take a variety of forms and can be linked to a range of different types of science and scientific problems, i.e. physics and climate change, cancer research and scientific competition, and rheology/chemistry and the strain of globalising forces symbolised by the Bhopal disaster. In each case, we address the different functions to which the complexities associated with these scientist characters are put in the texts as a whole. Ultimately, in these novels, character functions to provide an opportunity for a mise en discours of a wide range of aspects and factors that are central to the practise of science, as well as for opening up multiple new perspectives on the tensions between science and society.