Figuralität und Persuasion. Barack Obamas Redekunst als Gegenstand interdisziplinärer und experimenteller Forschung

While there has been considerable discussion on "figurative” language in the larger sense, especially on cognitive aspects of metaphor, this article describes an interdisciplinary experiment which focuses on the narrower and more technical definition of figurality, i.e. on rhetorical figures as formal patterns of sound or composition (such as alliteration or anaphora) as opposed to rhetorical tropes as methods of indirect signification (such as metaphor or metonymy). In line with Greek and Roman theory on the threefold function of rhetorical language (lógos, páthos, éthos; docere, movere, conciliare) we hypothesize that figures have persuasive, affective and aesthetic effects on the reader of a text that can be determined individually as well as cumulatively. The experimental study is specifically devoted to the reception of rhetorical figures in political speeches, taking Barack Obama's "Acceptance Speech” as an example. By ‘de-activating' hundreds of figures in a single text, without affecting its imagery or semantics, we are able to measure differentially the degrees by which these figures enhance the effects on the recipients. In an additional experiment, we investigate how they condition the memorability of a text or its content. On the basis of classical theory (Gorgias, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian), integrating psychology and neuroscience, psychiatry and psychotherapy, we aim at defining an interdisciplinary research agenda for empirical and experimental as well as intercultural rhetori

Paratexte und Bilder in der Primatographie

This study examines paratexts and images in works of primatology. In order to classify generic traits of primatographical publications, all paratexts, images and narrative positions of a large corpus of such monographs were registered. The analysis of these data allows for the determination of three distinct genres: scientific books, illustrated books and autobiographical/popular science books. The paratexts also reveal the strategies employed in the presentation of the books: They address a lay public, underline scientific objectivity or generate authenticity. The form of the texts indicate the audiences that the books address and enact an intimate relationship between non-human primates and human beings. Images showing researchers in close contact with non-human primates as well as paratexts addressing monkeys or calling for their preservation and conservation embed these field studies within a Christian iconography, invoke the life of saints or martyrs and appeal to the empathy of the readership

Dolores, enfermedades y metáforas poéticas del cuerpo en Alejandro de Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt’s account of his American voyage (1799-1804) functionalises the body in the colonies. The traveller’s body endures strains, pains, dangers, diseases, selfexperimentation and drugs; experiences that are compensated by therapeutical effects and assuaged by acclimatisation. America is imagined to be a body which, at first glance, appears destined for rape, while the text subtly codes it as a candidate for emancipation. The indigenous bodies seem to be ‘strange’, yet a series of transcultural performances subverts the difference between European and American physicality. Over the course of the voyage, Humboldt’s colonial poetics of the body are altered.La relación del viaje americano de Alejandro de Humboldt (1799-1804) describe las funciones del cuerpo del viajero en contacto con las colonias: el cuerpo europeo padece fatigas, dolores, peligros y enfermedades, se convierte en objeto de experimentación y de ensayos con drogas; efectos que se atenúan gracias al proceso de aclimatación. América es imaginada como un cuerpo que a primera vista aparece como objeto de explotación, mientras el texto lo codifica como sujeto de emancipación. Los cuerpos de los indígenas parecen ser exóticos; sin embargo, la diferencia entre los cuerpos europeos y americanos es puesta en duda de manera performática. En el transcurso del viaje la poética del cuerpo colonial se ve alterada

De América a Asia. El «otro viaje» de Alexander von Humboldt

In 1829, Alexander von Humboldt went on an expedition to Asia. The German naturalist’s second great journey is in many ways complementary to his American voyage of 1799-1804. In Russia, Humboldt travelled and worked under conditions of political pressure. His Central Asia (1843) displays subtle techniques of indirect criticism. He observed that inefficient energy production in an economy dominated by state monopolies damaged the environment and led to man-made climate change.En 1829 Alexander von Humboldt emprendió una expedición a Asia. Este segundo gran viaje del científico alemán fue complementario, en muchos sentidos, de su más conocido viaje a América, que realizó entre 1799 y 1804. En Rusia, Humboldt viajó y trabajó bajo una fuerte presión política. En su Asie centrale (1843) se sirve de técnicas sutiles y de una crítica indirecta. Humboldt concluyó que, en una economía de monopolios estatales, generar energía era poco eficiente y causa de la destrucción del medio ambiente y del cambio climático

Sprachbilder des Krieges : zur ersten Fassung von Ernst Jüngers "In Stahlgewittern"

In his controversial first book "In Stahlgewittern" (1920) Ernst Jünger ascribes meaning to World War I not explicitly in ideological terms, as much as indirectly by using a highly metaphorical language. Jünger codes war in 32 image sequences in the fields of nature, human practice, culture, and anthropomorphism. Jünger's metaphors can be differentiated into various categories and characterized by their density, their relation, their interference and their variation. When two warring fractions, then, are described by the same iconic motifs, their oppositions seem to vanish. And when metaphors are confronted with their real referents, with signifying names and stereotyped jargons, their artificial character and epistemological function come to light. The implicit meanings these metaphors generate should not be simplified as celebratory aestheticising, nor refuted as fascist ideology. The individual codes are unequally subtle, they generate different semantics and they connote deviating political positions; they intersect and conflict. "In Stahlgewittern" they are both an expression of an ideological attitude as well as a symptom of profound unsettlement.In seinem umstrittenen Erstlingswerk, "In Stahlgewittern" (1920), schreibt Ernst Jünger dem Ersten Weltkrieg weniger explizit einen ideologischen Sinn zu, als er ihn indirekt durch eine intensiv metaphorische Sprache mit Bedeutungen auflädt. Jünger codiert den Krieg in 32 bildlichen Sequenzen, die sich in den Feldern der Natur, der menschlichen Praxis, der Kultur und der Anthropomorphie verorten. Diese Sprachbilder lassen sich nach Typen differenzieren und in ihrer Dichte, Relation, Interferenz und Variation beschreiben. Dadurch dass dieselben Bilder auf beide Kriegsparteien angewandt werden, relativieren sie deren Gegensatz. Indem die Metaphern mit ihren realen Entsprechungen, mit sprechenden Namen und mit stereotypen Jargons konfrontiert werden, tritt ihre Künstlichkeit zutage und wird ihre epistemische Funktion deutlich. Die implizite Bedeutungs-Zuschreibung, die diese Metaphoriken erzielen, ist keineswegs einsinnig als Ästhetisierung oder Verherrlichung bzw. als kohärente faschistische Ideologie zu fassen. Die einzelnen Codes sind ungleichmäßig subtil, sie erzeugen verschiedene Bedeutungen, und sie konnotieren abweichende politische Positionen; sie geraten miteinander in Überschneidung und zueinander in Widerspruch. Es entsteht eine widerständige Semantik, die als Symptom einer Verunsicherung lesbar ist

«Como antiguas estatuas de bronce» Sobre la disolución del clasicismo en la relación histórica de un viaje a las regiones equinocciales del nuevo mundo, de Alejandro de Humboldt

The «antiquization» of America, using classicist motifs as imperial models of appropriation, is a central rhetorical strategy in Alexander von Humboldt's travelogue. Over the course of the colonial experience this discourse is infused with tension. The concept of «antiquity» is de-authorized, deconstructed. Readers witness the dissolution of European classicism as apolitico-aesthetic ‘dispositif’ due to contact with cultural difference.La interpretación de América usando motivos clasicistas como modelos imperiales de apropiación, «antiquización», es una de las principales estrategias retóricas en los relatos de viajes de Alejandro de Humboldt. A partir de la experiencia colonial este discurso está lleno de tensión. El concepto de antigüedad es así desautorizado y deconstruido. Los lectores son testigos de la disolución del clasicismo europeo como dispositivo político-estético producido por la diferencia cultural

Robustness and modularity properties of a non-covalent DNA catalytic reaction

The biophysics of nucleic acid hybridization and strand displacement have been used for the rational design of a number of nanoscale structures and functions. Recently, molecular amplification methods have been developed in the form of non-covalent DNA catalytic reactions, in which single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules catalyze the release of ssDNA product molecules from multi-stranded complexes. Here, we characterize the robustness and specificity of one such strand displacement-based catalytic reaction. We show that the designed reaction is simultaneously sensitive to sequence mutations in the catalyst and robust to a variety of impurities and molecular noise. These properties facilitate the incorporation of strand displacement-based DNA components in synthetic chemical and biological reaction networks