| While inklings of the movement to professionalize science can be seen in Britain in the eighteenth century, the real push came around 1830 with the creation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Subsequent changes in the social position of science over the course of the century were dramatic. Using examples drawn from popular, genre, and "literary" fiction, as well as commentary from scientists, this dissertation examines the public reaction to the process of professionalization in nineteenth century Britain by studying how scientists were portrayed in fiction. What emerges is a dynamic conversation between scientists and authors. The emphasis put on public funding and support necessitated that scientists engage in a dialogue with popular attitudes towards science. Fiction not only responded to science, it could be written by scientists, and furthermore had power to shape both science's position in society and the way scientists presented themselves to the public at large. Focusing on the foundation of professional science in the nineteenth century, this work examines the interplay between science and fiction by examining the image of scientists in representative works from four overlapping periods, covering the early 1800s through World War I. The results of strategies to improve the public image of science and foster government spending on scientific research are then briefly examined by a look at changes in fiction during the post-war period, up to the early 1930s. Major authors discussed include Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskell, Anthony Trollope, Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. Rider Haggard, George Gissing, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, M. R. James, George Griffith, and Aldous Huxley. Scientists discussed as part of the professionalization movement include Humphrey Davy, Charles Babbage, David Brewster, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley, John Tyndall, Karl Pearson, and J. B. S. Haldane. |
