Literatur und Naturwissenschaften. Erforschung der Rezeption von Naturwissenschaftlichem in literarischen Paradigmen

In this project research was pursued on the relations between literature, science and philosophy in literary and philosophical texts from the 19th and 20th century. Christian Paul Berger who worked on this project for the first two years concentrated on the 19th century and was occupied with Adalbert Stifter, Heinrich von Kleist und Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Monika Seekircher who did the second part of this project concentrated on the 20th century and dealt with Robert Musil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The cultural-historical methods employed at the Brenner Archives provide an optimal basis for interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinary relevant factors on an author`s work can be recognized and articulated in detail only on the basis of a detailed analysis of (auto)biographical sources and the examination of the whole cultural environment in which he works. With respect to Wittgenstein the cultural environment has been investigated thoroughly on the Brenner Archives, starting with Allan Janik`s Wittgenstein`s Vienna in 1973. Moreover Wittgenstein`s correspondence and his philosophical papers are accessible there in electronic form and can be searched to illuminate various questions. This instrument is also optimal for working out relations between Wittgenstein`s philosophy and his occupation with technology. This "cultural-historical method" can obviously be used for other persons even if the same instrument is not available. Before the start of this project Berger had already published a book about Stifter with the title "...welch ein wundervoller Sternenhimmel in meinem Herzen ...": Adalbert Stifters Bild vom Kosmos (Wien, Köln, Weimar: Böhlau 1996), which won a prize from the Austrian Academy of Science. Berger also published a book about Kleist under the title Bewegungsbilder. Kleists Marionettentheater zwischen Poesie und Physik (Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich: Schöningh 2000). He is currently working on a book about Goethe together with Friedrich Cramer. Seekircher worked out a concept for a monograph with the working title "Literatur - Naturwissenschaft - Philosophie. Wechselbeziehungen und Strukturgemeinsamkeiten", which contains some elaborated chapters and which she wants to finish within her Hertha-Firnberg-project. In this monograph she deals with persons who are interested in science as well as in the humanities (Wittgenstein, Musil, Chargaff, Cramer). Besides her dealing with individuals she has also planned a general chapter about interdisciplinarity based on concept formation by analogy. In this general chapter there will also be presented unpublished results from the case-study "Work, Technology, Language: `Tacit Knowledge` in Experimental Physics". This case-study was carried out 1992-95 on the Institut für Ionenphysik in Innsbruck and on the Institut für Allgemeine Physik in Vienna by Seekircher and Jörg Markowitsch led by Allan Janik and its results published under the title Die Praxis der Physik. Lernen und Lehren im Labor (Wien: Springer 2000). It can be seen as a predecessor project of the project "Literatur und Naturwissenschaften". Hence the interdisciplinarity in the Brenner circle is continued in projects of the Brenner Archives.