Paul Michel (Germanist)
Paul Michel (born March 19, 1947 in the city of Zurich in the canton of Zurich ) is a professor emeritus for older German literature at the University of Zurich and a leading exponent of encyclopedia criticism .
Life
Paul Michel studied German and art history in Zurich and Münster . In 1976 he did his doctorate with Max Wehrli . For over a decade he worked in various functions at the German Department of the University of Zurich. In 1986 Paul Michel received his habilitation . From 1985 to 1989 he was the main teacher of German at the Zürcher Unterland Cantonal School in Bülach . Subsequently, he was appointed as an associate professor for the subject “German Literature up to 1700” at the University of Zurich for the 1989/90 winter semester. In the winter semester 1999/2000 he was promoted to full professor , and at the end of the summer semester 2007 he retired.
Services
Together with Hans Weder, Paul Michel led a national fund project on the history of exegesis and hermeneutics from 1995 to 1999 . From 2002 to 2006, together with Madeleine Herren, he led a project sponsored by the Gebert Rüf Foundation on the subject of “General knowledge and society. Encyclopedias as indicators of changes in the social significance of knowledge, education and information ”. In connection with this project, Paul Michel published various articles on the subject of encyclopedia criticism, including those relating to the Internet as a store of knowledge. In addition, Paul Michel has been President of the Swiss Society for Symbol Research since 1990.
His dissertation , entitled “Formosa deformitas”, deals with the aesthetics of the ugly in the Middle Ages. His habilitation thesis deals with the formal and functional relationships between metaphor, simile, allegory and allegory, which is why it bears the title “Alieniloquium” - after a quote from Isidore of Seville (etym I, xxxvii, 21f.): “Allegoria est alieniloquium. Aliud enim sonat, et aliud intellegitur ” (German:“ Allegory means speaking differently. This says something and something else is understood ”).
Publications
- Paul Michel (1976): Formosa deformitas. Forms of coping with the ugly in medieval literature. Dissertation, University of Zurich. Bonn: Bouvier (studies in German, English and comparative literature 57).
- Paul Michel (1987): Alieniloquium. Elements of a grammar of figurative speech. Habilitation thesis, University of Zurich. Bern, Frankfurt, New York: Lang (Zurich German Studies 3).
- Hans Weder and Paul Michel (2000, eds.): Meaning mediation. Studies on the history of exegesis and hermeneutics I. Zurich a. a .: Pano.
- Paul Michel (2002): Orders of Knowledge. Presentation of the material in encyclopedias , in: Popular encyclopedias. From the selection, order and transfer of knowledge. ed. Ingrid Tomkowiak, Zurich: Chronos Verlag, pp. 35–83.
- Paul Michel and Madeleine Herren (2007, eds.): General knowledge and society. Files of the international congress on knowledge transfer and encyclopedic classification systems. Aachen, Shaker Verlag (available online at: www.enzyklopaedie.ch/kongress/publikation.htm )
- Regula Forster and Paul Michel (2007, eds.): Significatio. Studies on the history of exegesis and hermeneutics II. Zurich a. a .: Pano.
- Paul Michel (2008): Physikotheologie - Origins, Achievement and Decline of a Form of Thought. (= New Year's Gazette for 2008, published by the learned society in Zurich), Zurich. (available online at: www.symbolforschung.ch/files/pdf/Michel_Physikotheologie.pdf (PDF file; 902 kB))
Further publications online
- Paul Michel (1998): Huge and one-eyed. What kind of book is that? Everyone needs it. Nobody reads it. The question mark never appears in it. ? Solution: An encyclopedia. In: Uni Magazin. The magazine of the University of Zurich 4/98. Retrieved August 25, 2007
- Paul Michel (2004): Nihil scire felicissima vita. Knowledge and encyclopedia criticism in the premodern. in: Theo Stammen and Wolfgang EJ Weber (eds.): Knowledge assurance, knowledge organization and knowledge processing. The European model of encyclopedias. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag (Colloquia Augustana, Volume 18), pp. 247-289. Abridged web version on the homepage of the Zurich Encyclopedia Project (PDF file; 116 kB)
- Paul Michel and Madeleine Herren (2006): Unpredictable Thoughts on a Theory of the Encyclopedic - Encyclopedias as Indicators of Changes in the Organization and Social Significance of Knowledge. in: Paul Michel and Madeleine Herren (ed.): General knowledge and society. Files of the international congress on knowledge transfer and encyclopedic classification systems , September 18-21, 2003 in Prangins. (In print; available online at: www.enzyklopaedie.ch/kongress/aufsaetze/vorwort.pdf ) (PDF file; 6.31 MB)
- Tobias Zimmermann, Viviane Kappes and Paul Michel (2006): Information Assessment Capability - A Pilot Study at Zurich High Schools. MedienPädagogik, 6, 2, online at: http://www.medienpaed.com/Documents/medienpaed/12/zimmermann_michel05-2.pdf (PDF file; 746 kB)
- Tobias Zimmermann, Paul Michel and Viviane Kappes (2006): Schools on the Net - And Now? How high school students can use the new media to find and evaluate information. in: Paul Michel and Madeleine Herren (ed.): General knowledge and society. Files of the international congress on knowledge transfer and encyclopedic classification systems, September 18-21, 2003 in Prangins. (in print; available online at: www.enzyklopaedie.ch/kongress/aufsaetze/zimmermann.pdf (PDF file; 1.52 MB) )
Web links
- Literature by and about Paul Michel in the catalog of the German National Library
- Project "General Knowledge and Society"
- Website of the Swiss Society for Symbol Research
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Michel, Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss Germanist and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zurich |