Abstract:In the second half of the nineteenth century, Hermann Lotze, Robert Vischer, and Theodor Lipps pioneered the notion of Einfühlung, a term translated into the English empathy by Edward Titchener in 1911. This article investigates the role of empathy in literary reading by reconnecting it to its origins in the theories of Einfühlung and by revisiting these theories in the light of neuropsychological studies of embodied cognition carried out since the nineties. Contemporary to the coinage of the term empathy and to the broader dissemination of the notion of Einfühlung, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915) is here used as a test terrain for the hypotheses generated by this investigation. Kafka's novella shows us how literature can use "fantastic cognition" (Kukkonen) to open a space of empathic indetermination in which the reader can resonate with structures of feeling extended beyond "normal" human sensorimotor forms.
{"title":"The Role of Empathy in Literary Reading: From Einfühlung to the Neuroscience of Embodied Cognition, with the Example of Kafka's The Metamorphosis","authors":"Pierre-Louis Patoine","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In the second half of the nineteenth century, Hermann Lotze, Robert Vischer, and Theodor Lipps pioneered the notion of Einfühlung, a term translated into the English empathy by Edward Titchener in 1911. This article investigates the role of empathy in literary reading by reconnecting it to its origins in the theories of Einfühlung and by revisiting these theories in the light of neuropsychological studies of embodied cognition carried out since the nineties. Contemporary to the coinage of the term empathy and to the broader dissemination of the notion of Einfühlung, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915) is here used as a test terrain for the hypotheses generated by this investigation. Kafka's novella shows us how literature can use \"fantastic cognition\" (Kukkonen) to open a space of empathic indetermination in which the reader can resonate with structures of feeling extended beyond \"normal\" human sensorimotor forms.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"16 1","pages":"11 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88186918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Cognitive approaches are particularly appealing when it comes to phenomena that can be adequately described only when their mental processing is taken into account. The phenomenon of irony is one of them. While there has been a plethora of semantic and structural analytic approaches in literary studies and linguistics that have focused on irony, the question is to what extent irony is already inherent in the texts themselves, to what extent it is only recognizable from contexts, and whether we recognize irony as such equally at all.In this article, we combine approaches from literary studies, cognitive psychology, and psycholinguistics in a corpus-based study. We ask whether irony is recognizable from certain textual features, such as genre or style. To determine this, we undertook a questionnaire study that indeed supports the conclusion that it is. It is the goal of the article to stimulate further contributions of this kind in order to explore the potential of a cognitive approach for the processing of irony in literary texts, providing a sound basis for future neuro-aesthetic investigations.
{"title":"Understanding Irony in Literary Texts: A Cognitive Approach","authors":"S. Richter, H. Leuthold","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Cognitive approaches are particularly appealing when it comes to phenomena that can be adequately described only when their mental processing is taken into account. The phenomenon of irony is one of them. While there has been a plethora of semantic and structural analytic approaches in literary studies and linguistics that have focused on irony, the question is to what extent irony is already inherent in the texts themselves, to what extent it is only recognizable from contexts, and whether we recognize irony as such equally at all.In this article, we combine approaches from literary studies, cognitive psychology, and psycholinguistics in a corpus-based study. We ask whether irony is recognizable from certain textual features, such as genre or style. To determine this, we undertook a questionnaire study that indeed supports the conclusion that it is. It is the goal of the article to stimulate further contributions of this kind in order to explore the potential of a cognitive approach for the processing of irony in literary texts, providing a sound basis for future neuro-aesthetic investigations.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"22 1","pages":"101 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82516087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Working within cognitive television and media studies, this essay explores social cognition and emotion regulation involved in watching the popular German television series Babylon Berlin.
{"title":"Babylon Berlin: Bargaining with Shadows","authors":"Lisa Zunshine","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Working within cognitive television and media studies, this essay explores social cognition and emotion regulation involved in watching the popular German television series Babylon Berlin.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"36 1","pages":"38 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77249773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-01DOI: 10.3138/seminar.58.1.rev002
P. Hogan
{"title":"Louise Nuttall. Mind Style and Cognitive Grammar: Language and Worldview in Speculative Fiction","authors":"P. Hogan","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.rev002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.rev002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73688218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev003
Kevin P. Eubanks
{"title":"Erica Wickerson. The Architecture of Narrative Time: Thomas Mann and the Problems of Modern Narrative","authors":"Kevin P. Eubanks","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80262024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev001
Walker Horsfall
{"title":"Claudia Lauer, Uta Störmer-Caysa, and Anna Sara Lahr, eds. Handbuch Frauenlob","authors":"Walker Horsfall","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81867785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:During Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33), women who did not conform to conventional expectations for “proper” female behaviour were met with suspicion and criticism. Due to their embrace of sexual liberation and economic independence, interwar New Women were often unfairly associated with prostitutes and cultural degeneration. Anita Berber, a drug-addicted nude dancer and actress in multiple Aufklärungsfilme, was regarded as the embodiment of debauched modern womanhood. However, her persona intrigued Neue Sachlichkeit artist, Otto Dix, who enjoyed offending bourgeois sensibilities. Dix captured her likeness in the painting Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber (1925) but altered her features to make her look aged and sickly. Amid growing bourgeois fears about postwar societal decay, Dix utilized Berber’s painted body to engage Weimar discourses about the threat of the sexually liberated Neue Frau, the pervasiveness of the so-called depravity of metropolitan life, and the fear of the loosening grip of patriarchal social control.
摘要:在德国魏玛共和国(1918 - 1933)时期，女性如果不符合传统对“适当”女性行为的期望，就会受到怀疑和批评。由于她们信奉性解放和经济独立，两次世界大战之间的“新女性”常常被不公平地与妓女和文化堕落联系在一起。安妮塔·柏柏尔(Anita Berber)是一名吸毒的裸体舞者和多个Aufklärungsfilme中的女演员，被认为是堕落的现代女性的化身。然而，她的角色引起了新社会主义艺术家奥托·迪克斯的兴趣，他喜欢冒犯资产阶级的情感。迪克斯在画作Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber(1925)中捕捉到了她的形象，但改变了她的容貌，使她看起来又老又病。在资产阶级对战后社会衰败日益增长的恐惧中，迪克斯利用柏柏尔的彩绘身体来参与魏玛关于性解放的威胁的话语，所谓的大都市生活的堕落无处不在，以及对父权社会控制松动的恐惧。
{"title":"Visualizing Disease and ‘Depravity’ in the Weimar Republic: The Film Roles and Dance Performances of Anita Berber and Otto Dix’s Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber","authors":"Kaia L. Magnusen","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:During Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33), women who did not conform to conventional expectations for “proper” female behaviour were met with suspicion and criticism. Due to their embrace of sexual liberation and economic independence, interwar New Women were often unfairly associated with prostitutes and cultural degeneration. Anita Berber, a drug-addicted nude dancer and actress in multiple Aufklärungsfilme, was regarded as the embodiment of debauched modern womanhood. However, her persona intrigued Neue Sachlichkeit artist, Otto Dix, who enjoyed offending bourgeois sensibilities. Dix captured her likeness in the painting Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber (1925) but altered her features to make her look aged and sickly. Amid growing bourgeois fears about postwar societal decay, Dix utilized Berber’s painted body to engage Weimar discourses about the threat of the sexually liberated Neue Frau, the pervasiveness of the so-called depravity of metropolitan life, and the fear of the loosening grip of patriarchal social control.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"229 1","pages":"335 - 359"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75021494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev005
Maureen O. Gallagher
{"title":"Tiffany N. Florvil and Vanessa D. Plumly, eds. Rethinking Black German Studies: Approaches, Interventions and Histories","authors":"Maureen O. Gallagher","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"176 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90648325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev004
A. Etges
{"title":"Jörg Echternkamp and Stephan Jaeger, eds. Views of Violence: Representing the Second World War in German and European Museums and Memorials. Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association, Vol. 19","authors":"A. Etges","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"95 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72440384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:In Marcel Beyer’s celebrated Flughunde (1995), the discovery of an underground archive of sound in the aftermath of the Cold War—preserved despite strategies apparently calling for its mechanical destruction—reassigns agency and voice to instrumentalized victims of National Socialism. By highlighting the close connection between an alleged security custodian of the archive, the actual National Socialist sound cartographer Hermann Karnau, and Moreau, a character bearing a strong resemblance to the protagonist of H. G. Wells’s 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, Beyer’s novel draws attention to a utopian experiment with life that was carried out in the wake of the colonial enterprise in the Pacific and posits additional historical undertones manifested in Karnau’s National Socialist experiments with sound. Karnau’s attempt to master vocal timbre in particular foregrounds technologies that make it possible to manipulate voice and memory in the post-Fascist and post-Communist present. In spite of technological alteration, archived voices of colonial and National Socialist subjects manifest a vitalist aesthetic. With its concern for race, sound, and memory, the novel breaks new ground in telling the story of the National Socialist and colonial past in the aftermath of the Cold War.
{"title":"The Sound of Life in Marcel Beyer’s Flughunde (The Karnau Tapes)","authors":"Arina Rotaru","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In Marcel Beyer’s celebrated Flughunde (1995), the discovery of an underground archive of sound in the aftermath of the Cold War—preserved despite strategies apparently calling for its mechanical destruction—reassigns agency and voice to instrumentalized victims of National Socialism. By highlighting the close connection between an alleged security custodian of the archive, the actual National Socialist sound cartographer Hermann Karnau, and Moreau, a character bearing a strong resemblance to the protagonist of H. G. Wells’s 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, Beyer’s novel draws attention to a utopian experiment with life that was carried out in the wake of the colonial enterprise in the Pacific and posits additional historical undertones manifested in Karnau’s National Socialist experiments with sound. Karnau’s attempt to master vocal timbre in particular foregrounds technologies that make it possible to manipulate voice and memory in the post-Fascist and post-Communist present. In spite of technological alteration, archived voices of colonial and National Socialist subjects manifest a vitalist aesthetic. With its concern for race, sound, and memory, the novel breaks new ground in telling the story of the National Socialist and colonial past in the aftermath of the Cold War.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"35 1","pages":"360 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86954769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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