Scientifictions: Richard Powers e il romanzo-saggio postmoderno

This article describes the connection between Richard Powers’s narrative worlds and Bruno Latour’s "scientifiction". In his works Latour refers to Powers as “the master of scientifiction” and praises his ability to describe controversial matters creating plots which present scientific “truths” as open-ended constructs constantly undergoing revisions. In this article I argue that the affinities between Powers’s literary works and Latour’s ethnographic inquiries should be situated in the wider context of American postmodern fiction. In my reading of Powers' neuronovels Galatea 2.2. and The Echo Maker, I point out that the American novelist moves beyond the conventional philosophical frame of metafiction, often associated with irony and blasé cynicism. His works can be considered innovative examples of the postmodern essay-novel, and they provide vibrant examples of the return of moral earnestess at the core of contemporary U.S. literature.