Abstract

Can we clearly and strictly distinguish a literary text from a scholarly text? Can we neatly divide off the basic operations of literary studies (reading/writing) from the basic operations of literature (reading/writing)? What impact does literature have on the way it is described (and vice versa)? »Passagework« takes two central reading procedures (passage and analogy), which are as evident in scholarly disciplines as they are consistently passed over in silence there, to show how reading theoretical writings can turn into literature and vice versa. A study of Adalbert Stifter's »Nachsommer« and Michel Foucault's »Order of Things« demonstrates how discourses can turn into gardens and clouds into theories.