Metaphor and Materiality

"Metaphor and Materiality explores the relationship between literature and science from the end of the eighteenth century to the Cold War. This wide-ranging study reveals how major works of German and Austrian literature reflect, manipulate and question 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 philosphical 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). Peter Smith's argument, together with his extensive bibliography, will prove invaluable to researchers in the now very exacting interdisciplinary field of literature and science."--Jacket.