Mathematics, Irony, and Ethics

Abstract

The availability of the English translation of Robert Musil’s three-volume masterpiece The Man without Qualities has opened his work to the English academia. This article concentrates on the critical work on Musil, specifically interpretations of ambiguity in his work and the question of how science, irony, and ethics have been linked to issues of ambiguity. Such concerns can be regarded as a common denominator for English-speaking criticism, whose specific contribution has not been analysed. I argue that scholarship on ambiguity in Robert Musil’s fiction is an oscillation between textual and contextual interpretations. While textual interpretations concentrate on how ambiguity appears in the actual text, contextual interpretations are concerned with the effect Musil’s intellectual milieu played on his fiction. Ultimately, I contend that a combined perspective would be more productive and work against a tendency of disambiguation.