Krol's conjecture Mathematical and physical metaphors in Gerrit Krol's essays on the death penalty

Dutch author Gerrit Krol wrote several essays on capital punishment. In these essays, he uses various mathematics- and physics-based metaphors. Within the field of literature and science studies, scholars have pointed out that imagery connects different discourses and has a constitutive function in the construction of knowledge. This contribution uses a literature and science approach to study the mathematics- and physics-based metaphors used by Krol. It shows how the author succeeds in effectively linking different discourses - on mathematics, physics, and capital punishment - and makes clear that his typical use of metaphor is an essential part of the articulation of fundamental ideas about capital punishment. The contribution argues that four different functions of Krol's metaphors can be distinguished: an epistemological, psychological, political and transgressive function. Thus, it makes clear that a literature and science approach to metaphor inspired by the notion of interdiscursivity contributes to a careful interpretation of Krol's ambiguous essays on capital punishment, and illustrates that a focus on metaphor analysis is of value when studying the interdiscursive nature of literature.