Promovieren mit System : Das International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC)

In der ersten Runde der Exzellenzinitiative des Bundes und der Länder waren nur zwei geistes- und kulturwissenschaftliche Anträge erfolgreich. Einer war der des International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC). Das Konzept basierte auf den Erfahrungen, die man seit 2001 im Rahmen des Gießener Graduiertenzentrums Kulturwissenschaften (GGK) gesammelt hatte

Matters of culture

Ten years ago, Alain Touraine famously defined culture as the new paradigm for understanding today’s world. Five years before, Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington had edited their volume under the heading “Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress”. Arguably, in the 21st century the study of culture represents an emerging and expanding field, dealing with the central challenges of contemporary society. Because the abstract paradigm of culture seems to be the motor of social change, the study of culture has been increasingly showing its multidimensional relevance at the interface of smart development and critical inquiry. Old, new and renewed cultural practices ask for innovative theories and for advanced research methods. In addition, new approaches such as arts based research, connectivism or the examination of big data challenge the hereto overwhelmingly interpretative humanist scholarly practice. For many academics, trained in the traditional humanities disciplines (from art history to literature or philosophy), the study of culture, perhaps a paradigm that is none, continues to bring added complexity and anxiety. How does culture matter in today’s world? How does culture relate to globalization? How does cultural change shape our mind? Which possible worlds does contemporary culture allow for? In which ways do culture, conflict, citizenship and sovereignty correlate? And, finally, how does the study of culture challenge the critical scholarly endeavor of the humanities? The CECC conference “Matters of Culture” discussed the state of the art of this debate and has acted as a gateway to future research

Pour une reconceptualisation de la narration non fiable : une double approche cognitive et rhétorique

Introduction au narrateur non fiable Depuis que Wayne C. Booth a introduit le terme de narrateur non fiable en l’érigeant en concept autonome, le narrateur non fiable est considéré comme une des catégories de base indispensables de l’analyse textuelle. Rares sont ceux qui, à ce jour, ont tenté de modifier ou de contester la définition bien connue de Booth, devenue la définition canonique du terme : « je dirai d’un narrateur qu’il est digne de confiance (reliable) quand il parle ou agit en acc..

Literaturwissenschaft und der ‚eudaimonic turn‘: Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen zum Lebenswissen der Literatur und zu Axel Hackes ‚Wozu wir da sind‘ als literarisches Gedankenexperiment für ein gelungenes Leben

A series of theoretical reorientations has not only reshaped the study of culture and the humanities, these ‘cultural turns’ (Doris Bachmann-Medick) have also had an impact on the trajectory of literary studies. Taking its cue from one of the most recent turns that have been proposed, viz. the so-called ‘eudaimonic turn’ (James O. Pawelski and D.J. Moores), this essay argues that literary studies have good reasons to involve themselves more strongly than hitherto in the interdisciplinary discussion on what constitutes a good life, and that literature itself creates important life-knowledge and cultural models of what a good life could look like. Literary works delineate aesthetically created thought experiments that test different models of viable or good forms of life (section 2). The knowledge of literature, however, does not entail explicit or normative recommendations on how to lead one’s life, but is based more on the aesthetic forms and literary techniques used for representing forms of life. These hypotheses are explored in section 3 by means of an exemplary analysis of Axel Hacke’s latest book ‚Wozu wir da sind. Walter Wemuts Handreichungen für ein gelungenes Leben‘ (2019). The essay attempts to show that a reorientation towards the poetics and thematic of a good life or eudaimonia opens up not only new research questions and trajectories for literary studies but also affords an opportunity to increase the social and practical relevance of a form of literary studies that gravitate towards life sciences (section 4). A short epilogue in a more personal and subjective vein concludes this essay with reflections on the question of what professors and universities are there for

Fictions of Empire and the (Un-)Making of Imperialist Mentalities: Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Criticism Revisited

This article explores some of the issues that are of crucial importance for any attempt to come to grips with the logic of the fictions which provided the ideological backbone of British imperialism. After briefly delineating the continuity of the imperial past in the present, section 2 provides a preliminary exploration of the meanings of the term “fictions of empire,” i.e. of the ambiguous title of this essay. Section 3 then provides an attempt to conceptualize the relationship between fiction and reality, and between culture and imperialism, emphasizing the creative or performative role that works of fiction can play in the construction and deconstruction of the ideological fictions of imperialism. Section 4 presents a narratologically informed revison of colonial discourse analysis and post-colonial criticism, which is the the approach that informs this article. Section 5 discusses six of the main functions that both literary and conceptual fictions can fulfill with regard to the making, and unmaking, of imperialist mentalities, while the last section provides a brief conclusion