Literary History of Science: From Reassessing Darwin to Stapledon's Evolutionary Science Fiction

Drawing on philosopher of science Maurizio Esposito's distinction between historiographies of science written by scientists (SH) and by historians (HH), the author proposes the literary historiography of science (LH) as a distinct perspective. Against the existing SH/HH binary, the chapter establishes the literary-historical path as an independent category of science historiography rather than a subordinate of the other two. A conceptual and programmatic argument built on Esposito's existing distinction and illustrated through cases from the history of evolutionary theory.

In the Darwin case, LH scholarship and methods are shown to be integral to re-evaluating the significance of Darwin's work. This re-evaluation occurs among both historians of science and literary scholars, indicating that literary-historical methods have entered core discussions in the history of science. Grounded in existing historiographical and literary scholarship, argued at the level of historiography.

Using Stapledon's evolutionary science fiction as a thread, the author models a history of evolutionary theory that goes well beyond the "Modern Synthesis." It extends the boundaries of evolutionary theory's history from Darwinian natural selection and Mendelian genetics to the scientific imagination shaped by science fiction. Case-based evidence linking Stapledon's work to astrobiology, Earth system science, and the theorisation of Artificial Intelligence.

Stapledon's evolutionary science fiction has shaped scientific disciplines from astrobiology and Earth system science to the theorisation of Artificial Intelligence. It treats literary texts as agents shaping scientific problematics and theoretical imagination rather than as passive reflections of science. A cross-disciplinary historiographical argument resting on interpretive links between texts and disciplinary development.

The chapter is positioned within The Oxford Handbook of Literature and Science from the Nineteenth Century to the Present and addresses readers in history of science, literary studies, and science-culture studies; its argument applies to settings where literary-historical methods are used to rewrite the history of science, especially evolutionary theory, and it demonstrates how science-fiction texts can be brought into disciplinary history.

This is abstract-level text for a chapter; the detailed argument, the specific chains of evidence linking Stapledon's work to each discipline, and the criteria for judging "influence" still need to be checked against the chapter itself. The chapter is also listed as accepted and forthcoming in 2026, so the published version may still change.