Sympraxis
Sympraxis is a narrative theory approach that was developed in the 1990s by the Romance scholar Rolf Kloepfer . It was conceived as a universal model for the analysis of narrative texts in literary studies and films , commercials and video clips in media studies . He combines approaches from pragmatics , semiotics and reception aesthetics .
Mimesis, discourse, sympraxis
Kloepfer's model is based on three levels of narrative: mimesis , discourse , sympraxis. The first two levels are traditional terms of narrative theory, but Kloepfer redefines them in a specific sense. Each of these three levels has a number of levels of complexity. All three levels must be related to one another in the analysis.
In Kloepfer's model, the level of mimesis is the level of a narrative that relates directly to the world, that builds up ideas about the world. A narrative text can provide a “ realistic ” description of the world or a fictitious one ; various intermediate forms are possible.
The discourse level describes the inner structure of the narrative. This does not just mean the sequence of events, but the linking of all elements of the narrative on all structural levels . It ranges from very simple sequential sequences to complex relationships between motif, tone, color, movement (in film) or narrative scheme, sentence structure, rhetorical figures and sound (in literary narration), thus encompassing both micro and macro structures of the narrative.
The sympraktische level finally, newly introduces the Kloepfer, encloses the entire spectrum of "white-guided emotional feelings", so emotions through signs processes (writing, film) are triggered and controlled. This includes emotional movement, emotion, amusement, but also more complex processes such as evoking memories or political agitation - or even triggering buying impulses in the commercial. The level of sympractical techniques also allows different levels of complexity and intensity: from neutral, factual presentation that does not move the recipient, to processes that “grab” the reader. The highest level is that of "fascination".
According to Kloepfer, sympraxis is “ active participation ” - not just passive reception , but active participation in symbolic objects and processes. Sympractical techniques guarantee the effect and durability of complexes of signs: It starts with the catharsis , which Aristotle saw as the most important task of tragedy , continues with the various possibilities of influencing readers in literature ( rhetoric ) and ends with the modern commercial, the has developed its own arsenal of techniques to emotionally involve the audience, to entertain them, to make themselves unforgettable and thus ultimately to encourage them to consume.
Kloepfer found the forerunner of his theory of active participation in action in the pragmatics of Charles Sanders Peirce and Umberto Eco . Both semioticists emphasized that the role of the recipient in reading or watching is not a passive one, but an active one: signs must be interpreted, processed and linked with one another; Knowledge has to be accessed and combined with the text; Storylines are discovered, etc. Further theoretical models that Kloepfer uses are the aesthetics of effect or reception by Wolfgang Iser and Hans Robert Jauß and the narrative theory of Michail Bachtin .
reception
The book by Kloepfer / Landbeck (1991) was particularly well received in media studies; there has long been a theoretical gap in the area of the effect of films. Due to the relatively short-lived nature of many theoretical models in the humanities , however, it remains to be seen whether this concept can prevail in the long term.
On the concept of sympraxis
The term sympraxis was actually coined by Novalis , to which Kloepfer explicitly refers. Novalis uses it in the sense of symphilosophy and sympoesy , the joint production of signs between communication partners . He writes about Friedrich Schlegel : "Fridrich's approval - and sympraxis is certain to me"; elsewhere it says: "Our thinking is absolutely just a galvanization ... All thinking, etc. is in itself a sympraxis in a higher sense." (quoted in Kloepfer 1990). Sympoesie (or sympraxis, symphysics) presupposes that sign producers merge with one another, weave together on a text that is at the same time "sociable", i.e. forms a kind of socio-poetic network.
literature
- Kloepfer, Rolf: Narrative Cooperation - Semiotic Notes on Aesthetic Enjoyment. 1990
- Kloepfer, Rolf / Hanne Landbeck: Aesthetics of Advertising. The television commercial in Europe as a symptom of new power. Frankfurt / Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Sozialwissenschaft 1991. ISBN 3-596-10720-2
- Kloepfer, Rolf: Sympraxis. Dresden: Dresden University Press 1999. ISBN 3-933168-18-X
- Kloepfer, Rolf: Principles of Literature: Foundations of a pragmatic literary theory. Heidelberg: Synchron 2002. ISBN 3935025122