Articles & Papers

This article gives an overview of francophone African diasporic websites such as Africultures.com, africavivre.com and other digital magazines, networks and blogs that are present on different platforms. Taking recent novels, texts of liter- ary criticism, reviews and comments as examples, I analyse in what way they share in discourse about diasporic and migratory identity positions of Afropéens (‘Afropeans’) (and differ therein from other readings of the same novels). Methodologically, I draw on Stephen Greenblatt’s concepts of self-fashioning and circulation of social energy as well as on Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of the produc- tion of social capital. With respect to socially preformed discursive formation of Black people as an ostensibly homogeneous minority in the twenty-first century France, I refer to Pap Ndiaye’s ground-breaking study La condition noire from 2009 which closely analyses the complex situation of the Black migrant and post- migrant population. I focus on two narrative texts which are widely perceived both in France and on an international level: First, the autobiographically inspired novel Le Ventre de l’Atlantique (The Belly of the Atlantic) by Fatou Diome and second, Marie Ndiaye’s narrative triptych Trois femmes puissantes (Three Strong Women). Studying remarks and comments of literary criticism concern- ing these texts on francophone African diasporic websites, I raise the following questions: What relevance do these narrated characters (still) have today? To what extent do they shape the discourse of Black migrants in France? What kind of interpretation of the colonial history and context do they offer? And which emancipatory moments and decolonial strategies create a new, proper symbolic capital and, thus, add to the Imagined Community of ‘Noirs en France’ (‘Black people in France’)?

In Ingrid Bennewitz & Detlef Goller (eds.) altiu maere heute. Die Nibelungen und ihre Rezeption im 21. Jahrhundert.(Bamberger Germanistische Mittelalter- und Frühneuzeitstudien 6) 11-43. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press. ISBN: 978-3-86309-884-1 DOI: 10.20378/irb-57732

In Brühne, Julia, Christiane Conrad von Heydendorff & Cora Rok (eds.). 2021. Re-Konstruktion des Realen: die Wiederentdeckung des Realismus in der Romania (Romanica Band 11). Göttingen: V&R unipress, Mainz University Press. 151–178. ISBN: 978-3-8471-1352-2

In Flügel-Martinsen, Oliver, Franziska Martinsen & Martin Saar (eds.) Das Politische (in) der Politischen Theorie. Stuttgart: Nomos. printISBN: 978-3-8487-8414-1 ebook ISBN: 978-3-7489-2790-7

Carving out the paradoxes of underground urban infrastructure, this paper attempts to establish a dialog between infrastructure studies, on the one hand, and Contradiction Studies, on the other hand. It starts from the premise that the technical and political characteristics of infrastructure are only thought of and made visible in case of failure or breakdown.

BmE Themenheft 6. Widersprüchliche Figuren in vormoderner Erzählliteratur: 1–23 DOI: 10.25619/BmE2020396

Using the examples of Gunther, Siegfried, Dietrich of Bern and Etzel in the ‘Nibelungenlied’, the lecture examines contradictions between royal rank and actual power to act, between the actions of rulers and the discourse of domination. They point to the genre-typical self-portrayal of the warrior nobility in the heroic epic and to the primacy of material history and the finality of the plot over the constitution of the characters, which in this respect is only ‘subordinately’ contradictory, but also to shifts in the discourse of rulership.

In Krotz, Elke, Norbert Kössinger, Henrike Manuwald & Stephan Müller (Hrsg.), Rudolf von Ems. Beiträge zu Autor, Werk und Überlieferung (ZfdA Beihefte 29), 103–116. Stuttgart: Hirzel. printISBN: 978-3-7776-2679-6 eBook ISBN: 978-3-7776-2783-0

In Carsten Dutt, Hubertus Busche & Michael Erler (Hrsg.) Schwerpunkt: Jean Starobinski (Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte Band 62 (Jg. 2020)). Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-7873-3946-4

This article discusses marginalisation in internet forums and blogging platforms using the example of asexuality blogs and discussion threads. While large corpora of both English and German, such as COCA and DeReKo, contain hardly any mention of asexuality and these few instances of asexuality and related expressions typically refer to plant biology, online communities do discuss aspects of life as an asexual person and their experiences of marginalization even within the LGBTQ community. Definitions of asexuality, including its delineation from other identities, and how asexual people articulate conflicts and other issues on these online platforms are discussed in detail. Particular attention is paid to how this particular group is constructed by others, how they construct themselves as not being part of the mainstream, and the role (self-)marginalisation plays in this context.

The aim of this paper is to sketch an approach for integrating the historiography of the sciences and of philosophy. More precisely, the paper suggests a method for investigating interactions within transdisciplinary constellations of researchers working in philosophy and in the exact sciences. I start off by introducing specific notions of analogy, variation, and conceptual space which provide the main ingredients of this method. The notion of a conceptual space, as well as other characteristics of the present approach, are adaptations from so-called constellation research. Originally, constellation research was developed for the historiography of philosophy – especially in the context of the origins of German idealism. However, as I will argue in the second half of the paper, it is adaptable to the historiography of science, especially of the exact sciences. To support this claim and to illustrate the integrative power of the present approach, I will (i) compare the notions of a constellation and a conceptual space with Ludwik Fleck’s notions of a »thought collective« and a »style of thought«, (ii) critically evaluate the distinction between contexts of discovery and of justification in a historiographical context, and (iii) relate the notions of analogy and variation, as introduced in the first part of the paper, to current debates about what is sometimes called »invariantism« in the philosophy of science.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly being applied in drug discovery. While some protagonists point to vast opportunities potentially offered by such tools, others remain sceptical, waiting for a clear impact to be shown in drug discovery projects. The reality is probably somewhere in-between these extremes, yet it is clear that AI is providing new challenges not only for the scientists involved but also for the biopharma industry and its established processes for discovering and developing new medicines. This article presents the views of a diverse group of international experts on the ‘grand challenges’ in small-molecule drug discovery with AI and the approaches to address them.

This article (re-)examines (marked) inconsistencies and incompatibilities in Middle High German heroic epic. Those contradictions may result from oral tradition, from the difficulties of transfering oral narratives into literacy, from the conditions of performing from memory, or from traditional narrative regularities of the genre. Frequently, they are striking side effects of a type of narration which is paradigmatic instead of syntagmatic, elliptic and aggregative, scenic and final, and therefore highly tolerant against contradictions of any kind. Contradictions and inconsistencies are (consciously or unconsciously) used (and imitated) as one of the constitutive stylistic features of heroic epic. In some cases, moreover, contradictions and inconsistencies are obviously part of an intentional poetics of contradiction ostentatiously accumulating and exhibiting different layers of knowledge and meaning. The textual strategies of heroic epic, in some respect perhaps of premodern narration in general, tend to favour discrepancies, contrasts, and contradiction instead of nuances, compromises, and smooth transitions.

Contradiction is not just a (post-)modern phenomenon. In premodern narratives, conflicting concepts and logical inconsistencies are omnipresent. This paper focuses on contradictions interdependent with knowledge: Traditional narratives may aggregate different versions of matters rooted in collective memory (heroic epic) or authoritative sources (romances of antiquity), sometimes without concern for the consistency of their own story. Narrative texts may use contradiction for didactic purposes. Contradictions may result in both construction and deconstruction of knowledge. Strategies of irritation and ambiguity involve recipients in the production of meaning. Thus, the concept of contradiction is apt to redefine premodern narrative strategies.

Yearbook of the Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, Band 22 (2018/2019): Romania und Germania. Kulturelle und literarische Austauschprozesse in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit. DOI: 10.29091/9783954906765/007

In Schröder, Werner, Susanne Köbele, Klaus Ridder, Eckart Conrad Lutz, Ricarda Bauschke, Franz-Josef Holznagel, Julia Frick & Veronika Hassel. 1970. Wolfram-Studien XXV): 323–341. Berlin: E. Schmidt. http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/id/2489370

This contribution (re-)examines the description and multiple functions of selected antagonists in courtly romance around 1200. Excepting romance of antiquity, one rarely encounters equal opponents who represent a contrary system of values and continue to take consequent action against the hero until the end. The texts are centered on their protagonists, lacking an equal narrative counterpart. Hence, the applicability of the concept ‘antagonist’ might be called into question for Arthurian, grail, and Tristan romance.

In premodern narratives contradictions are omnipresent – conflicting concepts, logical inconsistencies, acts of objection. In a narratological perspective ›contradiction‹ – conflicts of incompatible knowledges and narrative patterns; inconsistencies in or between speech (by narrator or characters) and action; contradictory or inconsistent information and motivation – is apt to subvert, complicate, or enrich the textual production of meaning. The project ›Contradiction as a Narrative Principle in Premodern Narrative‹ (University of Bremen) explores different types of contradictions in medieval epic and romance.

In Kasten, Ingrid & Laura Auteri (eds.) Transkulturalität und Translation. Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters im europäischen Kontext, 243–252. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110556438-017

In Oliver Marchart (eds.) Ordnungen des Politischen. Einsätze und Wirkungen der Hegemonietheorie Ernesto Laclaus, 81–102. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. printISBN: 978-3-6581-7258-9 ebook ISBN: 9783-6581-7259-6