Textpraxis # 2

1.2011

In our second issue Frauke Bayer (Erlangen-Nuremberg) deals with the myth of Fontane in Günter Grass’s Ein weites Feld, Jörg Schönert (Hamburg) presents a theory of satire and Jan Decker (Leipzig) explores literary writing in his poetological essay.

Literature and Society

Frauke GéraldineBayer

Gelebter Mythos als Garant der Unsterblichkeit

Formen individueller und kollektiver Fontane-Verehrung in Günter Grass' Roman ›Ein weites Feld‹

The way society deals with its classical authors says a lot about their status in the cultural memory. Collectively admired and misunderstood at the same time – Günter Grass comes to this disillusioning result shortly after German reunification, in view of all-German practised forms of erecting a monument, which seem to negate the human being behind the author. Against the background of the attribution of a mythologizing function of literature Grass creates a different type of mythical admiration in his novel Ein weites Feld, published in 1995: further developing Thomas Mann’s postulate of a mythical walking-in-footsteps he manages to mirror Theodor Fontane’s life and work in the character Fonty and likewise to oppose it to the public culture of memory.

Theories of Literary Study

JörgSchönert

Theorie der (literarischen) Satire

Ein funktionales Modell zur Beschreibung von Textstruktur und kommunikativer Wirkung

The outlined model of literary satire assumes that satirical communication within institutionalized activities of literary communication is characterized by a special functionalisation of textual system and non-textual references, which is relevant for the text structure. At the same time, the article also pursues a goal regarding the history of theory and subject and documents how in the German literary studies the subject area ›theory and history of satire‹ was linked to the international discussion in the late 1960s and during the 1970s.

Literary Studies and Praxis

JanDecker

Wilhelm Reich, das Schreiben, meine Neurose und ich

The prose-writer, dramatist and writer of radio plays Jan Decker reflects in his essay on conditions and resistances of literary writing. Thereby poetological methods are less important than the questioning of conditions and dispositions which lead a person to create a literary text there, where self-perception and world touch each other. A wide range is spanned, which via eroticism and physicalness of the act of writing ultimately leads to the recognition of the »initial neurosis« as the author’s enigma one has to attend to.

Editorial

After the successful start of Textpraxis in November 2010, we are happy to present you the second issue of the Digitales Journal für Philologie.

As online-journal of the Graduate School Practices of Literature at the University of Münster, Textpraxis understands itself as a platform which has the intention to 1. be digital and in the sense of open access accessible to all, 2. publish articles of high quality and 3. be open to different voices and at the same time to support a dialogue among philology. The conception of Textpraxis shall do justice to the fact that scientific work always means communication, dialogue and interaction. The electronic publishing project Textpraxis also invites you to participate.

As a collaborative project, all articles published in Textpraxis can be commented by all readers. If you want to point something out to the authors, to ask questions or to call attention to problems, you have the direct possibility for dialogue and interaction. Our journal also offers space for extensive reactions: you are able to submit an independent article as a response article to texts already published in Textpraxis anytime. We hope that this medium for scholarly communication will be used more in the second issue. The articles published in issue # 1 will still be accessible for a continuous discussion.

The second issue of Textpraxis offers a wide range of philological contributions with its three sections:

In the section »Literature and Society« Frauke Bayer deals with the question in what way society makes demands on authors. A mythologisation of authors is shown on the basis of the Fontane-myth in Günter Grass’s novel Ein weites Feld. In this issue, the contribution to »Theories of literary studies« is from Jörg Schönert. He presents a functional model for the description of the textual structures and communicative effects of the literary satire. This article documents how this subject area, which has been long neglected in the German literary studies, finds entry into the international discussion. Not least of all because of this, the article corresponds to the interphilological profile of Textpraxis. In the category »Literary studies and Practice« also non-scientists get a chance to speak. In the case of the present issue, the author Jan Decker (Leipzig) provides a poetological essay which gets to the bottom of the subjectivity of literary writing. Since we knowingly abstained from a review of the text, the article invites even more lively debate, comments and response articles.

We look forward to working with you!

Your Textpraxis Editorial Team

Imprint

Textpraxis # 2 (1.2011) has been published on May 1 2011.

Editorial Team:
Nina Gawe
Till Huber
Innokentij Kreknin
Christoph Pflaumbaum
Christina Riesenweber
Matthias Schaffrick

Reviewers:
PD Dr. Burkhard Meyer-Sickendiek, Freie Universität Berlin
Christian Sieg, Ph.D., Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Cover image: Innokentij Kreknin