Andrea Csiki

Chaos at the Crossroads: the Appropriation of Chaos Theory by Literature and Feminism Andrea Csiki

This book investigates the relationships between chaos theory, feminism, and postmodern literary theory, based on two premises. On the one hand, it considers the traditional view of hermetically distinct fields and disciplines no longer corresponding to what we may call postmodern experience. It articulates chaos theory as a conceptual background at the 'crossroads' of various paths within the culture. On the other hand, the work takes an approach which assumes that chaos theory is a concrete manifestation of a broader cultural phenomenon called 'the paradigm of chaos'. This paradigm is present in various sites and disciplines within the culture (including poststructuralism, chaos theory, as well as various aspects of feminist theorizing). The work hopes to demonstrate that chaos theory is not only significant in itself, articulating basic assumptions about the ontological status of contemporary science, shifting away from the principles characterizing modern science, such as order, prediction, and reduction, but it renders itself to various appropriations in diverse areas, such as literary and feminist theories.