Eco and Evo

Abstract

Introductions to interdisciplinary studies and programmatic papers usually stress the foundational requirement for all interdisciplinary work: an adequate knowledge about more than one academic discipline. Unless scholars are actually trained in two disciplines, the decision to engage in interdisciplinary research includes the necessity to access or acquire a sufficient understanding about the methods, epistemologies and paradigms of at least one more academic field. Of course, it cannot be expected that scholars who engage in interdisciplinary studies must be able to conduct research in each discipline. But a basic literacy in the respective area of inquiry is de rigueur. In disciplines that are close to home, that does not present a major problem, and every student or scholar of literature and culture has to be able to access the required knowledge in history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, or the arts, even though the paradigms and methods may differ considerably from those of our own academic environment. Interdisciplinary research between literature and the sciences, however, poses quite different demands, and even a very basic understanding of the respective concepts may require intensive work and a willingness to engage with unfamiliar and recalcitrant theories and practices. There are two ways in which sufficient knowledge in various disciplines can be achieved and provided. The first is cooperation. Once a question has been raised or a problem has been recognised, scholars from the different disciplines can put their heads and methodologies together to work on a solution. This, of course, requires that the problem is regarded as relevant in both disciplines and/or that the cooperation seems to be promising. Occasionally, the research will be asymmetric, with one dominant discipline in charge of the project while the other acts as an auxiliary discipline, providing necessary data, know-how, or technologies – such asymmetries should not be regarded as diminishing, and an auxiliary discipline of one project may well be dominant in a different context. Alternatively, the scholars will have to acquire interdisciplinary knowledge by an immersion into the specific theories and methods of the other discipline, which can be a very challenging and time-consuming process and, if conducted in splendid isolation without interdisciplinary interaction and some monitoring by scholars from the other discipline, it may easily lead to misunderstandings and erroneous conclusions. In literary and cultural studies, another phenomenon can occasionally be observed: Interdisciplinary studies may take place chiefly within the context of previous