Narrative Alchemy: Transmuting Text through Chemical Lenses

Abstract This paper proposes an interdisciplinary interpretive framework titled 'Narrative Alchemy,' which examines literary texts through conceptual parallels drawn from chemistry and environmental sciences. While literature and chemistry are often treated as separate intellectual territories, both disciplines are deeply concerned with transformation, interaction, and systemic balance. By employing chemical principles such as reaction, catalysis, synthesis, entropy, and equilibrium, this study develops a model of chemical hermeneutics that reimagines narrative as a dynamic system. The paper aligns this framework with environmental thought by treating texts as ecosystems where characters, ideas, and contexts interact within structured yet evolving networks. Such an approach foregrounds process rather than static meaning and highlights how narrative change resembles material transformation in natural systems. The interdisciplinary method demonstrates relevance to environmental humanities and sustainability studies by showing how literary analysis can adopt scientific metaphors responsibly and productively.