Metaphor and Materiality: German Literature and the World-View of Science 1780-1955

Metaphor and Materiality explores the relationship between literature and science from the end of the eighteenth century to the Cold War period. This wide-ranging study reveals how major works of German and Austrian literature interrogate contemporary scientific paradigms and metaphors. An introductory chapter discusses current approaches to the study of science, drawing on the work of Rorty, Kuhn and Toulmin amongst others. Subsequent chapters analyse in detail key literary works, setting them in a scientific and philosophical context: Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809), Buchner's Dantons Tod and Woyzeck (1835-7), Stifter's Kalkstein and Bergkristall (1853), Musil's Die Verwirrungen des Zoglings Torless (1906), and Brecht's Leben des Galilei (1955). The extensive bibliography will prove invaluable to researchers in the field of literature and science.