Literature as the Other Side of Science

Abstract

This article discusses prominent Bulgarian physician-scientists known for their significant contribution to the Bulgarian medical sciences, who apart from pursuing their scientific careers authored numerous literature works like poems, sketches, essays, etc. They are scientists whose poetry, prose and journalism carry a message and have no less artistic impact than their scientific achievements; they are doctors for whom writing fiction is a way to communicate easier with their “audience” and present the conclusions from “their science” in a more simple and comprehensible way. The authors of this article dwell on the mediating role of the literary texts that transfer the names of physician-scientists from the strictly scientific field of familiarity and fame, and facilitate the perception of their scientific developments, bringing them closer to a wider circle of readers. The article discusses methods and means of carrying out communication between the “two cultures of the modern society” – natural sciences and humanities and art, as well as ways of popularizing scientific achievements. The article covers the activities of humanist doctors who lived and worked in the period from the end of the 18th century to the present day. It examines medical achievements in the context of the historical and political setting and that are accompanied by quotations from literary works and analysis of the works.