Bruce Clarke is an American scholar of literature and science whose work explores the intersection of narrative theory, systems theory, and cybernetics. A professor of literature and science at Texas Tech University, Clarke is known for bridging the humanities and the sciences through his studies of self-organizing systems, communication, and the feedback loops that shape both living organisms and social thought. His writing combines philosophical depth with an accessible curiosity about how information, technology, and life itself intertwine.
In his influential book Neocybernetics and Narrative, Clarke reinterprets literary and cultural texts through the lens of second-order cybernetics—the study of systems that observe and regulate themselves. By linking storytelling with feedback systems, he reveals how narratives can model processes of self-reference, adaptation, and emergence. Clarke’s broader body of work situates posthumanism, ecology, and media theory within a shared framework of dynamic systems, offering readers a new way to understand how meaning evolves in complex networks—whether biological, technological, or symbolic.
