Publications

Research in African Literatures, the premier journal of African literary studies worldwide, serves as a stimulating vehicle in English for research on the oral and written literatures of Africa. Reviews of current scholarly books are included in every number, and a forum offers readers the opportunity to respond to issues raised in articles and book reviews.

In Wiener Linguistische Gazette (WLG) 91 (2022). 1-36.

After explaining the rationale for bringing the author of The Old Drift, Namwali Serpell, and critical theorist Homi Bhabha into conversation, this interview with both of them explores some of the key themes of Serpell’s novel in relation to its wider geopolitical and historical context. […]

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

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 […]

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

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

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 […]

Contradictory characters are characters whose internal characterization in the text is contradictory or who are designed in and as a contradiction to discourses and traditions external to the text. The volume contains case studies from Virgil to the early New High German prose novel and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

This volume focusses on contradiction as a key concept in the Humanities and Social Sciences. By bringing together theoretical and empirical contributions from a broad disciplinary spectrum, the volume advances research in contradiction and on contradictory phenomena, laying the foundations for a new interdisciplinary field […]

Dieser Band enthält grundsätzliche Überlegungen und textbezogene Fallstudien zu poetologischen Potenzialen von Widersprüchen und Verwandtem in deutschen und europäischen Erzähltexten vom 12. bis zum 17. Jahrhundert. Untersucht werden Akte der Widerrede und Phänomene der Unvereinbarkeit, widersprüchliche Konzeptualisierungen und narratologische Brüche, epistemologische Bedingungen der Wahrnehmung von […]

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), […]

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, […]

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 […]