Chemistry and Literature: Disciplines in Dynamic Equilibrium

Abstract

This article examines the complex and multifaceted topic of the link between chemistry and literature. Instead of scouring the literary works of the various epochs in search of links with chemical thought or reasoning only on those literary works that are clearly imbued with chemistry (Primo Levi first and foremost, but also Gadda, Calvino and Sinisgalli in Italy, or, in the world arena, Sacks, Hoffmann, Goethe, Wells), a different approach is proposed, a third way that moves from a suggestive hypothesis of chemistry and literature as very different disciplines, but in constant dynamic equilibrium. To illustrate this thought and point of view, a number of themes are identified that are of fundamental importance in both chemistry and literature, albeit with profoundly different implications. The themes are events and their why and how, the before and after, that is, time and its irreversible arrow, the interpretation of the present, reality and unreality, questions and answers, and the value of discovery. In six separate paragraphs, these themes are analysed with significant and original references to discoveries and innovations in chemistry combined with reflections on works of international literature, attempting to highlight consonances and dissonances between chemistry and literature and arriving at a synthesis that identifies how chemistry and literature have behaved, over the centuries, like two planets revolving around the same sun of culture and knowledge, sometimes moving apart, sometimes coming closer together.