Publications

Research in African Literatures 53(3). 1-22. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/900030

This volume offers a systematic and generally understandable introduction to philosophical questions in physics and its historical development. It begins with a presentation of important stages in the history of physics in antiquity, the early modern period and the past two centuries, and uses them to illustrate central epistemological features of physics. It discusses typical explanatory strategies, the role of experiments and predictions, the procedure for forming concepts and theories and the importance of mathematics.

In Martin Nonhoff, Sebastian Haunss, Tanja Klenk, Tanja Pritzlaff-Scheele (eds.) Politik und Gesellschaft verstehen. Frank Nullmeier zum 65. Geburtstag. Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 49–64. printISBN: 9783593516660 eBookISBN: 9783593453088

Dealing with auditory oddities and ambiguities is not only entertaining, it is also an important driver for basic auditory research. The same acoustic stimulus can actually be perceived in different ways. We not only hear “with our ears”, but various other physical, physiological and cultural factors also play an important role. This directly gives rise to broader philosophical questions, for example on perception – and the enduring appeal of pieces of music is also based in many places on such ambiguities [13].

Zeit spielt eine grundlegende Rolle im menschlichen Leben. Zu bestimmen, was ihr Wesen ausmacht, ist bekanntermassen nicht einfach – und ist vielleicht auch nicht die philosophisch interessanteste Herausforderung. Wichtiger scheint es, verschiedene Lebensbereiche zunächst auf ihre unterschiedlichen Zeitauffassungen hin zu untersuchen und sich zu fragen, wie sie sich aufeinander beziehen. Für unseren Umgang mit Zeit ist das Entscheidende: Wie lassen sich Ereignisse sinn- und taktvoll aufeinander abstimmen?

When calculating structural or spectroscopic properties of molecular crystals, the question arises whether it is sufficient to simulate only a single molecule or a small molecular cluster or whether the simulation of the entire crystal is indispensable. In this work we juxtapose calculations on the high-pressure structural properties of the (periodic) HCN crystal and chains of HCN molecules of finite length. We find that, in most cases, the behavior of the crystal can be reproduced by computational methods simulating only around 15 molecules. The pressure-induced lengthening of the C−H bond in HCN found in calculations on both the periodic and finite material are explained in terms of orbital interaction. Our results pave the way for a more thorough understanding of high-pressure structural properties of materials and give incentives for the design of materials that expand under pressure. In addition, they shed light on the complementarity between calculations on periodic materials and systems of finite size.

In the face of growing populism and right-wing radicalism, the fight against historical forgetfulness in thought and action is once again highly topical. At first glance, however, forgetting history – at least in relation to the pre-modern era – hardly seems to be an issue: The Middle Ages, Renaissance and early modern period are experiencing a boom in novels, dramas and popular media. But here in particular, there is an urgent need for an active response to simplifications, mythifications and falsifications. The contributors to this volume show that it is essential for a critical consciousness to recognize historical difference and media filters and to reflect on their effects.

In L. Auteri, N. Barrale, A. Di Bella & S. Hoffmann (eds.), Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik: Wege der Germanistik in transkultureller Perspektive, Akten des XIV. Kongresses der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG), Vol. 6, 511-515. Bern: Lang. DOI: 10.3726/b20759

“She was a poet as great as Joseph Brodsky and a human rights activist as fearless as Andrei Sakharov. Unlike Brodsky, however, she did not receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, and unlike Sakharov, she did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize. However, her name is associated with a unique event in the Soviet Union: On August 25, 1968, she and seven other young people came to Red Square to demonstrate openly against the regime – and against the suppression of the Prague Spring by tanks from the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries.”

In Febel, Gisela, Sonja Kerth & Elisabeth Lienert (eds.) Wider die Geschichtsvergessenheit. Inszenierte Geschichte – historische Differenz – kritisches Bewusstsein. 39-53. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI: 10.1515/9783839459294-003

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.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

After the revolutions of 1917 and a bloody civil war, the Soviet Union was founded on December 30, 1922. It dissolved on December 21, 1991. In between lay 69 years in which it left its mark on the world – through Stalinist terror, through its victory over the armies of Hitler’s Germany, as a nuclear power in the Cold War and with Gorbachev’s policy of détente. Its legacy still weighs heavily on the post-Soviet space today. Internally, under Stalin, it brought famine, deportations, the Gulag and arbitrary executions. But at the same time, the country underwent a fundamental modernization and the first man in space was a Soviet man. Susanne Schattenberg traces the years under the Soviet star and shows how they still have an impact today.

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

This book extends the contemporary debate on the global concept of religion, conducted in the context of religious studies, to the field of the theology of religions. In applying poststructuralist and postcolonial perspectives, it seeks to deconstruct central categories such as truth, universality, or religion, in order to contextualize them by making transparent their historical genealogy and entanglement with political, social, and scientific discourses. Further, it aims to outline new areas of thinking, which can serve as the experimental basis of an alternative, non-essentialist form of theology (of religions).

Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 39. 309–335. ISBN: 9783110787108

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

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

Der Band behandelt in interdisziplinärer Perspektive Widerspruch unter anderem als einen konzeptionellen Anker von Diskursanalyse und -theorie. Widerspruch ist eine Figur der Ordnung von Wissen und damit Ausdruck von Machtverhältnissen. Akteur*innen, die Widersprüche identifizieren und als solche erst wahrnehmbar machen, sind ebenso in Dynamiken der Widerspruchsdeklaration verwoben wie das, was in einer Zeit als widersprüchlich bestimmt und bezeichnet wird. Die performative Dimension von Widerspruch unter Einschluss des Widersprechens verweist auf historische Normalitätsproduktionen und soziale Hierarchien, in denen das Widersprüchliche stets als Anlass zu seiner Auflösung verstanden wird.

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

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.