Literary anthropology

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Under literary anthropology (also known as anthropology of literature or literary anthropology ) are adopted research approaches that the production and reception of literature as (species-specific) activity or property of the people (Greek: anthropos ) understand and a connection or correlation of literary and cognitive functions , in recent times often with reference to research in human sciences .

In the literary discussion, the term anthropology first appeared as a catchphrase around 1990 and essentially led to the development of three different approaches to literary anthropology :

Mainly on the basis of Schings' and Pfotenhauer's ( literary anthropology in the 18th century: on the history of autobiography ) observations on the connection or “sisterhood” of fiction and anthropology in the 18th century, a new research interest in the history of literature and the history of ideas developed strongly influenced the research of the Enlightenment and led to the postulate of an "anthropological turn" in the 18th century.

At about the same time, an "anthropological turnaround" in literary studies was announced by the cultural studies side ( Bachmann-Medick ). The term anthropology used here as a method , but not as an object of literary studies, was taken up again by Fernando Poyatos' conception of a " literary anthropology ", which is a sub-discipline of an American " cultural anthropology ", i.e. H. a kind of ethnology . According to Poyatos, literatures are primarily “archives of anthropologically relevant data”, a view that has a long tradition in myth and archetype research. Accordingly, the cultural anthropological approach was primarily concerned with a more intensive description, in particular of the diversity of cultures .

Wolfgang Iser, on the other hand, coined the term “literary anthropology” as a methodical approach or orientation, but mainly focused on the general, ie. H. on researching and determining “anthropological constants” in literature, and thus represents the approach now known as “literary anthropology” .

The position represented by Iser has an extensive prehistory in the art and literary theory of structuralism and formalism ; also Ingarden protokognitivistische study of the construction of meaning in the reader (R. Ingarden: The Literary Work of Art , 1931) played a special role. For Iser, literary anthropology involves studying the anthropological implications of literary texts; According to Iser, such a research paradigm has a high yield prognosis, since from his point of view the medium of literature allows insights into people that philosophical , sociological or psychological theories cannot provide.

In this way, literary anthropology becomes for Iser an instrument for researching the potential of human beings on and at the same time beyond their respective historical manifestations. Historical updates, according to Iser, must be seen in the context of their respective functions; For him, fictions are neither to be grasped smoothly under any defined anthropological constants, nor under the respective cultural conditions of their origin. In Iser's view, literary works rather stage the interaction relationships between human predispositions and the respective circumstances as “ phantasmatic fictions ” in such a way that they always exceed them. Accordingly, it is the fundamental achievement of fiction to provide people with a specific set of instruments in order to expand themselves.

Other significant influences came from philosophical anthropology and aesthetics , in particular their development by Plessner .

The working group “Poetics and Hermeneutics”, founded in 1963, took up this tradition and attempted to sound out the anthropological elements of meaning and dimensions of the literary work of art by means of reflective terms such as “ imitation ”, “ illusion ”, “ play ” or “ comedy ”.

The analytical method presented here, based on one's own act or process of understanding, also characterized the literary theoretical and literary scientific work of the individual group members, such as Jauß ' reception aesthetics and Iser's remarks on the act of faking as an expression of human fantasy activity and imagination in fiction (W. Iser: Das Fictional and the Imaginary , 1993).

The special research area “Literature and Anthropology” (1996–2002) linked to the so-called Konstanz School there was also increasingly oriented towards the “cultural anthropological” paradigm from 1999 at the latest .

In the course of the “ cognitive turn ”, attempts were made to break away from the hermeneutic procedure and to find a connection to explanatory approaches and perspectives from the human sciences . This initiated an interdisciplinary research work which, under the title “literary anthropology or anthropology of literature”, marked the empirical re-establishment of the anthropological perspective in literary studies.

In addition to cognitive science approaches and results from empirical literary studies ( cognitive poetics ), impulses and suggestions from sociobiology were also taken up, for example in Caroll ( Evolution and Literary Theory , 1995; Literary Darwinism , 2004) or Boyd ( On the Origin of Stories , 2009).

In Germany, Eibl ( The emergence of poetry , 1995; Animal poeta , 2004) developed a biologically oriented literary theory that tried to integrate not only research results or findings from comparative behavioral research but also, in particular, the functionalist thinking and explanatory approach of evolutionary psychology .

In 2004, the Germanist Wolfgang Riedel reacted to competing theoretical approaches within literary anthropology with an energetic commitment to literary interpretation. Instead of systematically established theories or approaches, he advocated a more open phenomenological form of literary anthropology, which as such only offered one possible perspective for a deeper understanding of the text.

There are currently two main focuses of literary anthropological research: the search for anthropological universals in literary works or representations (J. Gottschall: Literature, Science, and a New Humanities , 2008) and the analysis of text structures with regard to related, correlating cognitive mechanisms ( In the Back of Cultures , 2007; Biological Constraints on the Literary Imagination , 2009).

literature

  • Doris Bachmann-Medick : Culture as Text. The anthropological turn in literary studies . (= Fischer Tb. Volume 12781). Frankfurt am Main 1996 (reprinted 1998, 2nd updated edition with a new “balance sheet”: (= UTB. Volume 2565). Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2004, ISBN 3-8252-2565-8 ).
  • Alexander Košenina: Literary Anthropology. The rediscovery of man. Academy Study Books - Literary Studies. Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-05-004419-4 . (2nd current edition. De Gruyter Studium, 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-040217-9 )
  • Alexander Košenina (Ed.): Literary Anthropology. Basic texts for the 'rediscovery of man'. de Gruyter Studium, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-040219-3 .
  • Katja Mellmann: literary anthropology . In: Gerhard Lauer , Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 178-180.
  • Helmut Pfotenhauer : Literary Anthropology. Autobiographies and their history - on the guide of the body . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar 1987, ISBN 3-476-00615-8 .
  • Helmut Pfotenhauer: Literary anthropology in the 18th century. On the history of the autobiography . Fernuniversität Hagen 1986. (4th edition 2008)
  • Wolfgang Riedel: Literary Anthropology. In: Wolfgang Braungart u. a .: Perceiving and acting. Perspectives of a literary anthropology . Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-89528-455-6 , pp. 337-366.
  • Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , pp. 151-154.
  • Rüdiger Zymner, Manfred Engel (ed.): Anthropology of literature - poetogenic structures and aesthetic-social fields of action. Mentis Verlag, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-89785-451-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Katja Mellmann: literary anthropology . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 178.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 151ff.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 151.
  4. ^ Katja Mellmann: literary anthropology . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 178f. and Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 151ff.
  5. ↑ See the corresponding (literature) information in Katja Mellmann: Literaturanthropologie . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 178f. See also Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , pp. 152-154.
  6. ↑ See Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 153.
  7. ↑ See Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 153.
  8. ↑ See the explanations by Katja Mellmann: Literaturanthropologie . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 179f. Likewise Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 151f.
  9. ↑ See the information from Katja Mellmann: Literaturanthropologie . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 179f. and Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 151.
  10. ↑ See Katja Mellmann: literary anthropology . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 179f. See also the information from Jürgen Schläger: Literary Anthropology. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart / Weimar, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 151ff.
  11. ↑ See the information from Katja Mellmann: Literaturanthropologie . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 179f.
  12. ↑ See the information from Katja Mellmann: Literaturanthropologie . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 180.
  13. ↑ See Wolfgang Riedel: Literary Anthropology. A distinction. In: Wolfgang Braungart et al. (Ed.): Perceiving and acting. Perspectives of a literary anthropology. Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-89528-455-6 , pp. 355f. See also Alexander Košenina: Literary Anthropology. The rediscovery of man. Academy Study Books - Literary Studies. Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-05-004419-4 , pp. 17ff. Available online for a fee via Verlag Walter de Gruyter degruyter.com . Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  14. ↑ See Katja Mellmann: literary anthropology . In: Gerhard Lauer, Christine Ruhrberg (Hrsg.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic terms . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 180.
  15. ↑ Review: Walter Wagner für Literaturkritik.de http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=7787