ABSTRACT
The new physics calls all in Doubt: reality is indeterminate, it contains a paradoxical complementarity within itself. While the constant metamorphoses of reality are observed with such attention that there is a reawakening of interest in alchemy, new analogies renew metaphorical strength of language, and even allow it to perform its metaphors. The set of chaotic patterns discernible in nature is jagged and recursive: Benoit Mandelbrot's fractal geometry explores rough, irregular shapes; he finds qualities of self-similarity, that is replication of jagged patterns in smaller and smaller scales, pattern within pattern. Thus fictional strategies puncture illusions about 'given ideas' of human nature and of reality. There is an isomorphism between scientific models and textual strategies. The examples of impact of twentieth-century scientific discoveries on contemporary fiction are taken from two novels – The Carpathians by Janet Frame and Charades by Jannette Turner Hospital – which were published within a year of each other, 1988 and 1989 respectively.
