Miracle from Mouldy cheese”
Chronological versus thematic self‐narratives in the discovery of penicillin
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9239778 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cheryl R Jorgensen‐Earp (University of Lynchburg), Darwin D Jorgensen (Roanoke College) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 69-90 |
| Publication date | 2002-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00335630209384360 |
| OpenAlex | W1979855678 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 17 |
The struggle over credit for the discovery of penicillin is a powerful case study of the ability of scientific narrative to establish reputation. This paper examines the ways Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey told the story of the discovery and development of penicillin, each providing provenance for the drug and enhanced claims for personal recognition. Fleming's version incorporated familiar narratives of the intervention of chance and divine favor, heroic scientists, and the need to extract good from evil. This account, echoing themes found in British home front stories of the “Blitz,” the Battle of Britain, and the miracle of Dunkirk, appealed to a public imagination already stimulated by a wartime press. By contrast, Florey used a conventional chronology typical of scientific literature to tell his version of the discovery of penicillin, placing his work at the end of a sequence of investigations on antibiotic substances that started in the 19th century. This view of scientific development as building on the work of predecessors was an account of the penicillin story satisfying to an audience of scientific peers. That Fleming is credited in the public mind as the discoverer of penicillin is partially a result of his construction of a narrative of discovery that invited popular participation and appealed to a beleaguered nation at war
Art · Art history · Battle · Legend · Literature · Miracle · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · History · Law · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Rhetoric and Communication Studies
Science in Context
The sociology of science
Narrative and freedom
The Intellectual and Social Organization Of the Sciences
An Introduction to Science Studies
Writing an Intellectual History of Scientific Development
The British Success with Penicillin
The duality of scientific ethos
Fetching good out of evil
Science, Government and the Mass Production of Penicillin
Wartime Bureaucracy and Penicillin Allocation
Penicillin and the new Elizabethans
Accommodating Science
Personal Narrative Revealing Self and Reflecting Other
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2020 (18) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |