Intersection Science Lit Musil's MWQ, 1571131167, £35.00/$65.00, 15 2005

The Intersection of Science and Literature in Musil's The Man Without Qualities

Thomas Sebastian

As the utopian projection of a world in which the conditional mood is preferred to the indicative, Robert Musil's ambitious novel The Man Without Qualities is widely recognized as a great example of aesthetic modernism and a profound reflection on the "postmodern condition." Based on the new and more inclusive English translation by Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike, this study provides the English-speaking reader with a well-researched commentary that situates Musil's novel in the cultural, literary, and scientific context of the early 20th century. Revealing the novel's many philosophical underpinnings, the study analyzes the intersection of theoretical reflection and aesthetic imagination essential to Musil's programmatic move beyond realism. Thomas Sebastian explores Musil's background in experimental psychology, which he studied under the pioneering psychologist Carl Stumpf, and how it and other strains of scientific thought, including that of Ernst Mach, on whose philosophical ideas Musil wrote his doctoral thesis, are reflected in his great novel.
Thomas Sebastian is associate professor of German at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

DETAILS
160 pages
Size: 9 x 6 in
13 digit ISBN: 9781571131164
Binding: Hardback
First published: 14/Feb/2005
Price: 65.00 USD / 35.00 GBP
Imprint: Camden House
Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture
Subject: German Literature

BIC class: AVH

STATUS: Available
Details updated on 18/11/2008

Reviews
Supported by ... solid scholarly apparatus, this book will be most useful to those studying the history of ideas, narrative technique, and literary theory. CHOICE

In five chapters framed by a well-crafted introduction and conclusion, Sebastian investigates Robert Musil's book through the lenses of philosophy and experimental psychology. CHOICE

[Sebastian] has a sophisticated command of a range of philosophical and scientific traditions... His thinking and writing are clear-eyed. This short but profound study should greatly influence further scholarly and critical work on Musil in English. GERMAN QUARTERLY

This book will be of primary interest to those seeking a better understanding of Musil's novel [Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften] ... It would not be an exaggeration to say that one has only an incomplete understanding of the novel without the scientific background Sebastian makes available. MONATSHEFTE

Sebastian's work places Musil's novel within the cultural context of the early 20th century, a time marked by a paradigm change in the domain of the arts and science.... The author traces the intellectual formation of Musil's outlook placing his emphasis on the intersection of theoretical reflection and aesthetic imagination. ETUDES GERMANIQUES

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