Text or Context

Reflections on Literary and Cultural Criticism. Edited by Rüdiger Kunow and Stephan Mussil.

This volume presents a discussion from various positions in literary and cultural studies about the relationship between textual and contextual readings of literature. In understanding literary works do we rather map texts onto their contexts or contexts onto texts? And what are the rules of projection? By theoretical argument as well as exemplary cases the ten essays contribute to the current discussion between text-oriented literary criticism and context-based cultural studies. Contents: S. Mussil: Introduction. The Mouse in the Pitch. Interpretive Methods in Literary and Cultural Studies - C. Reinfandt: 'Texture' as a Key Term in Literary and Cultural Studies - P. Huhn: Narration as Textual Practice. The Sequentiality and Eventfulness of Stories - D. Wiemann: Eventalism. Singularity and the 'sensus communis' - J.M. Gurr: "Without contraries is no progression". Emplotted Figures of Thought in Negotiating Oppositions, 'Funktionsgeschichte' and Literature as 'Cultural Diagnosis' - R. Kunow: The Pain of Representation - S. Mussil: Literary Uses and the Method of Intuition - L. Eckstein: Monk Lewis's "Timour the Tartar", Grand Romantic Orientalism and Imperial Melancholy - S. Winst: Identity vs Difference. Sameness as a Concept of Identity Formation in Medieval Literature - H. Schwalm: Investigating Processes of Transition in Early Nineteenth-Century Working-Class Autobiography. Theoretical and Methodological Considerations of Textual Practices and the Empirical - R. Kunow: Postscript. Cultural Critique as Redemptive Fantasy? 175 Seiten mit 12 Abb., broschiert (ZAA Monograph Series; Band 15/Königshausen & Neumann 2013)