Buchcover Handbuch Sprache im Urbanen Raum

The chapter discusses the use of photographs in research on Linguistic Landscape. Based on the observation of a widespread use of photographic documentation, the status of photographs is critically reflected. The focus lies on a reading of Susan Sontag’s ([1977] 2014) Melancholy Objects. Here, conceptions of description and documentation are questioned, as they are common for some linguistic works, especially in the field of Urban Studies. Of particular importance is the examination of the tension between realism and surrealism as well as the question of the extraction of reality. The text, which is a remix of Susan Sontag’s ([1977] 2014) thoughts, is complemented by twenty photographs that address the limits of photographic representation in the linguistic text.


In Beatrix Busse & Ingo H. Warnke (eds.), Handbuch Sprache im urbanen RaumHandbook of Language in Urban Space, 333–393. De Gruyter.

DOI: 10.1515/9783110296334-015

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space

“According to Niklas Luhmann, space is a ‘special facility to negate contradictions’”.

Julia Lossau
name contradiction

“Contradiction becomes real where someone names contradiction.”

Ingo H. Warnke
limits

“Resistance is a democratic right, sometimes a duty. With literature we can find models for this right and think about its limits.”

Gisela Febel
idea of democratic critique

“If you think that acts of contradicting someone always need to point to better solutions, you haven’t really understood the idea of democratic critique.”

Martin Nonhoff
coherence in thought

“The imperative of non-contradiction generally produces a coherence in thought that is often at odds with social complexities.”

Yan Suarsana