Knowledge - Temporality - Cultural Comparison

Knowledge and Knowing

The PhilFak’s current research regarding the socio-cultural and historical conditions of modes of knowing and their formation focuses on approaches dealing with the development and (re-)production of implicit and amorphic repertoires of knowledge, as well as explicit ‘inventories’ and archives of knowledge (D. Taylor). The term knowledge figures both propositionally as explicit and verbalized knowledge, and non-propositionally in the sense of ‘tacit’ or pre-reflexive knowledge. The latter manifests itself in bodily practices, experiential knowledge and traditions, but also in structures of feeling and affect (Polanyi, Ryle, Neuweg, Shotwell). These multidimensional conceptualizations of knowledge operate in critical distance from a primarily cognitive notion of knowledge, also often dominant within Eurocentric (academic) discourses, and, hence, enable a productive dialogue with non-European forms of knowing that are based on divergent understandings of space and time.

Time and Temporality

The various strands of research at PhilFak analyze temporality as a foundational, albeit mostly implicit, dimension of socio-cultural orders and processes. Research in this area includes how ‘time’ is perceived in different social, cultural, political, and historical constellations; how individual and collective practices reflect, and simultaneously prefigure, medial and narrative representations of ‘time’ (i.e. how they control the experience of ‘time’); and how such (hegemonic) temporal regimes change or persist, for instance, due to the conditions of late-capitalist globalization (Rosa, Welzer). As such, analyses focus on narrative or memorial structures that help preserve, pass on, or reiterate past events. Eventually, the goal of this scholarly effort is the topographical modelling of a future that, with the help of prognostic or prophetic measures, helps sketching strategies of coping with contingency in the sense of a preservation or modification of symbolic and social orders. However, this angle also considers ‘time’ from a more subjective point of view: as a phenomenon of presence in the form of extraordinary experience or in the context of life-world being and pre-reflexive existence.

Cultural Comparison

Just as the complex of knowledge production in general, symbolic and social orders largely figure as culturally specific. Hence, their analysis requires a comparative approach which considers and integrates the insights of cultural hermeneutics. To avoid premature gestures of universalization, the goal is to reconstruct the epistemological horizons in which the analyzed phenomena occur and to compare these to the cultural premises of western academic research. Only in a second step, possibly transcultural phenomena (in the broad sense of the term) will be identified and examined. The faculty regards issues of interculturality not only as restricted to relations between traditional cultures and cultural spaces. It also deals with these issues regarding supposedly intracultural relations, as, for instance, between various functionally differentiated areas of order (gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, dis/ability, regional heritage) or in group interactions within plural and multicultural societies. A focus on interculturality also requires supplementary analyses of processes that cut across cultural boundaries and operate beyond established mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. On the one hand, these include different forms of transculturation, hybridization, and cultural mobility (of human beings as well as knowledge). On the other hand, such processes also encompass the question of transnational networks and publics.

Projects:

Science, Modernity and Political Behavior in Contemporary China (1949-1978)

In 20th century, China has transformed itself from an agrarian state to one that is dominated by worship of science and technology, relentlessly pursuing the establishment of a scientific society. In his 2007 work, Wilson Keeley maintains that China is on the road to becoming the next scientific powerhouse, being more innovative and progressive than the current leading nations, may it be Europe or the United States. This fundamental change can be explained by the constantly rising investments…

Knowledge – Temporality – Cultural Comparison

Knowledge - Temporality - Cultural Comparison

Projects:

Science, Modernity and Political Behavior in Contemporary China (1949-1978) Science, Modernity and Political Behavior in Contemporary China (1949-1978)

(In)Sanitary Science. The Discourse of Mental Hygiene as Tacit Knowledge in Antebellum Literature (In)Sanitary Science. The Discourse of Mental Hygiene as Tacit Knowledge in Antebellum Literature

Literarischer Zweifel. Skeptizismus und das Dilemma der Wahrheitsfindung in der mittelhochdeutschen Epik (12. bis 14. Jahrhundert) (2019-2022) Literarischer Zweifel. Skeptizismus und das Dilemma der Wahrheitsfindung in der mittelhochdeutschen Epik (12. bis 14. Jahrhundert) (2019-2022)

US-American Ruins: Aesthetics, Memory, and Urban Decay in (Post-)Industrial Photography US-American Ruins: Aesthetics, Memory, and Urban Decay in (Post-)Industrial Photography

Literature as a Life Science: Human Enhancement in 21st Century North American Science Fiction Literature as a Life Science: Human Enhancement in 21st Century North American Science Fiction

Death becomes us - stories of the end of life in contemporary literature and culture Death becomes us - stories of the end of life in contemporary literature and culture

Public Feeling in Global Contexts Public Feeling in Global Contexts

Übersetzungsprojekt (Buch): Kimura Bin (1988): Aida (Zwischen) Übersetzungsprojekt (Buch): Kimura Bin (1988): Aida (Zwischen)

Concepts of Knowledge and Research between the Arts and the Humanities Concepts of Knowledge and Research between the Arts and the Humanities

New Depression Literature? Literary Perspectives on the Economic Crisis in U.S. American Novels New Depression Literature? Literary Perspectives on the Economic Crisis in U.S. American Novels

Studies of Contemporary American Verse Studies of Contemporary American Verse

Producing and Consuming Authenticity — Politics of the Past in the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Sinophone Sphere Producing and Consuming Authenticity — Politics of the Past in the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Sinophone Sphere

“What if?” – Literary Articulations of Political Perspectives (and Alternatives) in the Americas since the 1970s” “What if?” – Literary Articulations of Political Perspectives (and Alternatives) in the Americas since the 1970s”

GRK 1718: Presence and Tacit Knowledge GRK 1718: Presence and Tacit Knowledge

Academy for School Theater and Performative Education Academy for School Theater and Performative Education

Transmediale story worlds in der Gegenwartsliteratur und –kultur Transmediale story worlds in der Gegenwartsliteratur und –kultur

Übersetzungsprojekt (Anthologie): Schlüsseltexte der Medientheorie in Japan: vom Flugblatt zum Internet (https://www.pubpub.org/revisions) Übersetzungsprojekt (Anthologie): Schlüsseltexte der Medientheorie in Japan: vom Flugblatt zum Internet (https://www.pubpub.org/revisions)

Bending Boundaries: Modern Dance and the Politics of Expression in the Age of Modernity Bending Boundaries: Modern Dance and the Politics of Expression in the Age of Modernity

Zugänge. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft 2017 Zugänge. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft 2017

Camp/Pop - Interventions Into Pop-cultural Discourses of Gender and Sexuality Camp/Pop - Interventions Into Pop-cultural Discourses of Gender and Sexuality

Wissensproduktion und -transfer in Naturwissenschaften und Literatur Wissensproduktion und -transfer in Naturwissenschaften und Literatur

Erinnerungskultur und Gedächtnis in China Erinnerungskultur und Gedächtnis in China

Keywords for Critical Futures Studies Keywords for Critical Futures Studies

Reeducation Revisited: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives on the Post-World War II Period in the USA, Japan, and Germany Reeducation Revisited: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives on the Post-World War II Period in the USA, Japan, and Germany

Überlieferungsweisen - Betrachtungsweisen - Gebrauchsweisen: Bedeutungszuweisungen an Artefakte der Hellseherei Überlieferungsweisen - Betrachtungsweisen - Gebrauchsweisen: Bedeutungszuweisungen an Artefakte der Hellseherei

The Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in late 19th and early 20th-Century US American Literature and Culture The Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in late 19th and early 20th-Century US American Literature and Culture

Dokufiktionales Erzählen in der zeitgenössischen Populärkultur Dokufiktionales Erzählen in der zeitgenössischen Populärkultur

Tacit Knowledge, Public Feeling, and Civil Sentimentalism Tacit Knowledge, Public Feeling, and Civil Sentimentalism

The Anti-Lynching Narrative: The Ethical and Political Agency of African American Fiction, 1900-1973 The Anti-Lynching Narrative: The Ethical and Political Agency of African American Fiction, 1900-1973

The Edge of Reason: Fiction, Risk and Probability in American Antebellum Narratives The Edge of Reason: Fiction, Risk and Probability in American Antebellum Narratives

Trinationales Workshop-Programm „Wissensproduktion in transkontinentaler Perspektive“ Trinationales Workshop-Programm „Wissensproduktion in transkontinentaler Perspektive“

Arktisprimitivismus Arktisprimitivismus

Narrative Entwürfe möglicher Welten in Science Fiction und populärwissenschaftlichen Schriften über Kosmologie und Astronomie Narrative Entwürfe möglicher Welten in Science Fiction und populärwissenschaftlichen Schriften über Kosmologie und Astronomie

Publications:

Science, Modernity and Political Behavior in Contemporary China (1949-1978)

(In)Sanitary Science. The Discourse of Mental Hygiene as Tacit Knowledge in Antebellum Literature

Literarischer Zweifel. Skeptizismus und das Dilemma der Wahrheitsfindung in der mittelhochdeutschen Epik (12. bis 14. Jahrhundert) (2019-2022)

US-American Ruins: Aesthetics, Memory, and Urban Decay in (Post-)Industrial Photography

Literature as a Life Science: Human Enhancement in 21st Century North American Science Fiction

Death becomes us - stories of the end of life in contemporary literature and culture

Public Feeling in Global Contexts

Übersetzungsprojekt (Buch): Kimura Bin (1988): Aida (Zwischen)

Concepts of Knowledge and Research between the Arts and the Humanities

New Depression Literature? Literary Perspectives on the Economic Crisis in U.S. American Novels

Studies of Contemporary American Verse

Producing and Consuming Authenticity — Politics of the Past in the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Sinophone Sphere

“What if?” – Literary Articulations of Political Perspectives (and Alternatives) in the Americas since the 1970s”

GRK 1718: Presence and Tacit Knowledge

Academy for School Theater and Performative Education

Transmediale story worlds in der Gegenwartsliteratur und –kultur

Übersetzungsprojekt (Anthologie): Schlüsseltexte der Medientheorie in Japan: vom Flugblatt zum Internet (https://www.pubpub.org/revisions)

Bending Boundaries: Modern Dance and the Politics of Expression in the Age of Modernity

Zugänge. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft 2017

Camp/Pop - Interventions Into Pop-cultural Discourses of Gender and Sexuality

Wissensproduktion und -transfer in Naturwissenschaften und Literatur

Erinnerungskultur und Gedächtnis in China

Keywords for Critical Futures Studies

Reeducation Revisited: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives on the Post-World War II Period in the USA, Japan, and Germany

Überlieferungsweisen - Betrachtungsweisen - Gebrauchsweisen: Bedeutungszuweisungen an Artefakte der Hellseherei

The Economy and Epistemology of Gossip in late 19th and early 20th-Century US American Literature and Culture

Dokufiktionales Erzählen in der zeitgenössischen Populärkultur

Tacit Knowledge, Public Feeling, and Civil Sentimentalism

The Anti-Lynching Narrative: The Ethical and Political Agency of African American Fiction, 1900-1973

The Edge of Reason: Fiction, Risk and Probability in American Antebellum Narratives

Trinationales Workshop-Programm „Wissensproduktion in transkontinentaler Perspektive“

Arktisprimitivismus

Narrative Entwürfe möglicher Welten in Science Fiction und populärwissenschaftlichen Schriften über Kosmologie und Astronomie