The Tensions of Scientific Storytelling

Narratologists tend to exclude scientific texts and lectures from their purview because of the requirement that stories have a human or anthropomorphic protagonist. The protagonists are the investigators of nature. And the investigator takes on two roles. There is a prehistory to what is reported. In the course of the work, the authors make decisions that influence how the narrative unfolds. Often the reader is unaware of what lurks beneath the surface of a journal article. There is a prehistory to what is reported. In the course of the work, the authors make decisions that influence how the narrative unfolds. Just as one is interested in how Thomas Mann wrote Death in Venice and, as one reads the novella, what the feelings of the boy Tadzio really are, so one wants to know the story behind the story of a scientific narrative.