Laufende Projekte
Habilitationsprojekt: Poetiken des Nicht-Wissens in der niederländischen Literatur um 1800 / Poetics of Ignorance in Dutch Texts around 1800
This research project shows how the forms and functions of ignorance in Dutch (literary) texts around 1800 change: There is a shift from ignorance conceptualized as a deficit needing to be remedied to ignorance turning into a valuable good worth nourishing. Ignorance is no longer merely the negative counterpart to knowledge. It becomes a productive concept in its own right instead. With regard to literary texts these unfolding poetics of ignorance help to explain why the function of literature changes quite drastically at the turn of the century: Whereas literature used to be a means to support and improve society by fighting ignorance, it turns into a medium that tries to establish a space independent from society where being ignorant seems to become a way to shake off societal constraints and expectations.
Ignorance as a research field developed as part of, but also as a reaction to the study of knowledge. It starts from the idea that knowledge formation can be described by turning to the counterpart of knowledge – ignorance. Investigating what people of a certain time and culture can not, should not or do not want to know sheds light on the way knowledge is formed and mediated. Describing the forms and functions of ignorance visualizes an entity that seems to be absent, but actually plays an important role in the construction of knowledge. The ever changing constellations of knowledge and ignorance reveal the dynamics of knowledge structures which form, stabilize or attack knowledge through social practices. Ignorance highlights the ethical and political dimension of negotiating the question of what can or should (not) be known.
The time around 1800 is an essential turning point with regard to the role of ignorance. During the Scientific Revolution since the early modern period the explosion of knowledge triggered an optimistic view on what could be known that marginalized the role of ignorance. In the late phase of Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth century, however, there is a new consciousness of the dynamics and also of the relativity of knowledge that appoints ignorance a central role in epistemology. The idea that the rapid accumulation of knowledge slowly diminishes ignorance is given up. Instead, ignorance is seen as necessary to generate new knowledge because it defines the conditions under which new knowledge can be acquired.
Beteiligte WissenschaftlerInnen: Dr. Beatrix van Dam
Projekt ‚Autobiographical Literature / Autofiktion‘
Autobiographical narratives embody central questions of literature and literary studies as well as fundamental issues of human self-relations. As a distinct and differentiated literary genre, life writing encompasses not only autobiography and biography, but also autofiction, letters, journals, illness-narratives, testimonials, memoirs, travel narratives essays, interviews, autographics and various other kinds of text. Film, art and photography, and social networks are prominent autobiographical media as well.
The forum creates a space for intensive investigations and explorations of concrete texts and materials, as well as for systematic theoretical reflections on the genre itself. It engages in current academic discussions, takes up impulses from other disciplines, and participates actively in the development of new directions of (interdisciplinary) inquiry. The activities of the forum include lectures, workshops, and conferences, as well as co-taught seminars and cross-disciplinary publications.
Beteiligte WissenschaftlerInnen: Prof. Lut Missinne, Prof. Katja Sarkowsky, Prof. Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, Kerstin Wilhelms, Nele Demedts, Twan Zegers (Autobiographieforum)
Publikation: Oprecht gelogen. Autobiografische romans en autofictie in de Nederlandse literatuur. Vantilt 2013.
Projekt: ‘Travel writing and travel encounters’
For many travellers, encounters and conversations with fellow-travellers and local population may not be the main aim of their journey, but they are important side effects of travelling.
This project investigates where and how Belgian and Dutch travellers between 1860 and 1940 entered into contact with compatriots and with the people of the travelled country, and what their conversations were about. A first question concerns the linguistic dimension of this communication, the foreknowledge and attitudes towards the other language, tensions between nationalistic and multilingual attitudes, and the use of translations and/or intermediaries as translators, interpreters or guides. Secondly, the social homo- or heterogeneity and the circumstances of these encounters, which are preconditioned by the spatial setting and material travel conditions, are being investigated. Thirdly, the contents of their communication and topics of conversation are being examined, i. e. what the conversations are about and which imagological, political, religious or ideological themes and preconceptions characterize this communication.
Beteiligte WissenschaftlerInnen: Prof. Lut Missinne
Laufende Promotionsprojekte
Nele Demedts, Objektivität und Objekte in den Romanen der niederländischen Nieuwe Zakelijkheid (Erstbetreuerin L. Missinne)
Nicole Pilz, Ein Vergleich der sozialen Rollen von Autoren während der Zwischenkriegszeit anhand von Autorenselbstorganisationen in den Niederlanden, Flandern und Deutschland aus ethnologischer Perspektive (Zweitbetreuerin L. Missinne)
Mathaabe Schick, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in German(y): A Study of the Translation and Reception of Adichie’s Fiction (working title) (L. Missinne, Zweitbetreuerin)
Twan Zegers, Memory, truth and fabrication in J. Presser’s Homo submersus (2010) [De waarheid en waarachtigheid van J. Pressers Homo submersus (2010)] (working title) (Erstbetreuerin L. Missinne)