Sins against Science

Lynda Walsh is Assistant Professor of English at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPrevious WorkRelevance of Hoaxes to Current Scholarly ConcernsChapter Summaries1. A Brief Natural History of Hoaxing Swift’s Hoax and SatiresParodyNineteenth-Century Fraud, Tall Tales, and Science Fiction in AmericaKairos2. Method The Search for a Method: The Traditional and Philological Genealogies of Linguistic Approaches to Literature Optimality TheoryA Brief Tutorial: Optimality Theory for Reception Studies3. Poe’s Hoaxing and the Construction of Readerships Overview of Poe’s Scientific and Rhetorical AcculturationThe Contest between "Hans Phaall" and Locke’s Moon Hoax: Revealing Reader ExpectationsCollecting Reader ExpectationsThe Balloon-HoaxThe Facts in the Case of M. ValdemarVon Kempelen and His DiscoverySolutions to Problems in Poe ScholarshipPoe’s Relationship to Science and to His Readership: How the Hoaxes Interact with Eureka 4. Mark Twain and the Social Mechanics of Laughter Rhetorical AcculturationScientific AcculturationThe Petrified ManAdjusting the Filter of Expectations to Account for Twain’s HoaxingApplying the Analysis to Problems in Twain ScholarshipRelationship of the Hoax to Twain’s Scientific ThinkingThe Social Mechanics of Laughter 5. The Hoaxes of Dan De Quille: Building and Defending the West Rhetorical AcculturationScientific AcculturationDe Quille’s HoaxesSummary of Reading Expectations Based on De Quille’s HoaxesDe Quille’s Hoaxes Build and Defend His Ideal West 6. The Mechanics of Hoaxing How Did the Hoaxes Work?The Hoax as a Machine Conclusion Conclusion: The Sokal Hoax Exploiting the Conventions of the Cultural Studies ArticleSokal’s Hoax Constructs Him as a Notorious ExpertThe Hoax as a Computer Virus Appendix A: How to Read Tables in Optimality Theory (OT) What the Parts of the Table MeanThe Results of the Syllabification of /Anset/Optimality Theory Applied to a Decision about a Hoax’s Truth-ValueAppendix BNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex