earticle

영어

This paper examines the field of scientific referents represented in the discursive world of The Gold Bug Variations to analogize Powers’ thought processes, and the change of a paradigm in biology with the emergence of a network of exchanges in signifying fields. I then look closely at the ways in which the discourse of cybernetics has transformed molecular biology as scientists have wrestled with the infinity of the genome. Powers wants to explore the genome and history of the genomic study in the archaeological standpoint of knowledge, and more importantly, the current historical moment, in which the infinity of the genome is articulated through the cybernetic metaphor. By weaving things such as multiple discourses with Bach's Goldberg Variations, Herri's art, biology, and computer science, he shows the development of biology from modern to postmodern through cybernetic metaphors and advanced biotechnologies.