Transgressive Readings: The Texts of Franz Kafka and Max Planck

by Valerie D. Greenberg

Transgressive Readings offers reading and a theory of reading of both literary and scientific texts on an equal basis and in relation to one another. Greenberg argues that literary and scientific discourses do not inhabit irreconcilable linguistic and epistemological systems, but rather can engage and interrogate one another both within and between texts. Her examination of this dialogue leads to insights that go beyond conventional notions of literary and scientific language. Through such "transgressive readings" the author offers new interpretations of scientific and literary texts that subvert the usual distinctions between these disciplines and reveal the affinities between them.

Greenberg demonstrates her thesis through an examination of nontechnical and technical texts by novelist Franz Kafka and German theoretical physicist Max Planck, originator of the theory of quantum mechanics. In the course of her argument, she marshals literary criticism and theory, linguistics, popular culture, history and philosophy of science, and mathematical and logical principles to develop a paradigm for interdisciplinary study.

Transgressive Readings argues for a critical awareness of language across disciplinary boundaries, and for the scientific and the literary aspects of a dialogue on knowledge. At issue are the nature of interpretation itself and the question of how to define and practice interdisciplinarity.

This study will appeal to literary scholars, critics, and theorists, as well as to intellectual historians and philosophers of science. It will be of special interest to those engaged in interdisciplinary studies and to the growing body of scholars exploring the critical intersection of literature and science.

244 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 1991