Science in contemporary poetry: A point of comparison between Raoul Schrott and Durs Grunbein

One of the most striking characteristics of Raoul Schrott's and Durs Grunbe in's poetry is its thematisation of science. Schrott and Grunbein are remar kably different contemporary poets however: in this paper I suggest that th eir conflicting uses of science in poetry constitute a useful point of comp arison. Schrott's scientists are poet-like figures who see the world in a n ew way, extending perspective and providing an example to the modern-day ly ric subject. For Schrott, science is a set of metaphors, a benign language of poetry. In Grunbein's poetry, science is a threat, a dominant, sanitisin g influence on modern life which, far from raising up humans as adventurers and explorers, diminishes them. Science here reveals only the serious mean inglessness of life and is taken up in the poetry as bravura and provocatio n. In this paper I demonstrate these tendencies through close textual analy sis of a variety of poems by Schrott and Grunbein which were written in the 1990s.