Wie deutsch ist es?
-
Robert Stockhammer
Abstract
Recent research concerning the linguality of literature has yielded the insight that multilingual texts are in fact the rule, whereas monolinguality (in the pre-Derridean sense of the word: homogenously English, purely German, etc.) is the exception. Until now, however, no classification of different types of mutlilinguality has been established. In the present article, I propose such a classification and test it, primarily by using a sample of narrative texts by W. G. Sebald, Primo Levi, Anita Desai, Roberto Bolaño, Walter Abish, and James Joyce. Each of these texts, in one way or another, includes German elements even though only the first of these is usually regarded as pertaining to German literature. Borrowing terminological items from Plato, Aristotle, and Charles S. Peirce, I propose to distinguish glotta-mimesis (presence of other languages on the level of the discours) from glotta-diegesis (presence of other languages on the level of the histoire), to add a sub-distinction to the former class (iconic vs. indexical glotta-mimesis), and to introduce two further terms (glotta-pithanon and glotta-aporetic) that will be useful in describing key aspects of the relationship between languages on the level of the discours and those on the level of the histoire. There are, however, cases in which it is impossible to determine the language spoken within the fictional ‚world‘, as constructed by a particular literary text. This class of glotta-aporetic phenomena turns out to be more than just one easily definable class. Limiting the reach of any classification based on the seemingly discrete distinction between histoire and discours, this linguistic aporia marks the autonomy of literature.
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© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Contributions
- General introduction
- Ethical Literary Criticism: East and West
- From Homer’s Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses: Theory and Practice of an Ethical Narratology
- The Ethics of (Fictional) Form: Persuasiveness and Perspective Taking from the Point of View of Cognitive Literary Studies
- Leger(e)demain: Reading and the Restless Hand
- Towards an Ethical Literary Criticism
- The Unbearable Lightness of Growth: Ethical Consciousness and Ethical Selection in Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden
- Visions of the End of Culture: Civilization, Barbarism, and the Realm beyond Forgiveness
- Wie deutsch ist es?
- The Danse Macabre and Shakespeare’s Battle of Shrewsbury
- Die pfadabhängige Matrix des Labyrinths
- Reviews
- Francesco Bono, Luigi Cimmino, Giorgio Pangaro (Hgg.):Morte a Venezia. Thomas Mann / Luchino Visconti: un confronto. Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2013 (Cinema. Passaggi di confine. Collana diretta da Christian Uva), 238 S., ISBN 978-88-498-3937-1, € 14,00.
- Philosopher en langues. Les intraduisibles en traduction. Sous la direction de Barbara Cassin. Paris: Éditions Rue d’Ulm / Presses de l’École Normale Supérieure 2014, Zweite Auflage, 218 Seiten. Evelyn Dueck:L’Étranger intime. Les traductions françaises de l’œuvre de Paul Celan (1971–2010). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2014 [Communicatio. Studien zur europäischen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte], 466 Seiten.
- Elke Sturm-Trigonakis:Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur. Translated from the German by Athanasia Margoni and Maria Kaisar. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2013.
- Kushner, Eva (ed.).L’époque de la Renaissance. Tome III. Maturations et mutations (1520–1560). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2011. 636 pp. (A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXVI)
- Claudia Hillebrandt/Elisabeth Kampmann (Hrsg.):Sympathie und Literatur. Zur Relevanz des Sympathiekonzeptes für die Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2014 (= Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft; 19), 308 Seiten.
- Loescher, Jens:Schreiben. Literarische und wissenschaftliche Innovationen bei Lichtenberg, Jean Paul, Goethe. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2014. 454 S.
- Ernst van Alphen:Staging the Archive. Art and Photography in the Age of New Media. London: Reaktion Books, 2014.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Contributions
- General introduction
- Ethical Literary Criticism: East and West
- From Homer’s Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses: Theory and Practice of an Ethical Narratology
- The Ethics of (Fictional) Form: Persuasiveness and Perspective Taking from the Point of View of Cognitive Literary Studies
- Leger(e)demain: Reading and the Restless Hand
- Towards an Ethical Literary Criticism
- The Unbearable Lightness of Growth: Ethical Consciousness and Ethical Selection in Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden
- Visions of the End of Culture: Civilization, Barbarism, and the Realm beyond Forgiveness
- Wie deutsch ist es?
- The Danse Macabre and Shakespeare’s Battle of Shrewsbury
- Die pfadabhängige Matrix des Labyrinths
- Reviews
- Francesco Bono, Luigi Cimmino, Giorgio Pangaro (Hgg.):Morte a Venezia. Thomas Mann / Luchino Visconti: un confronto. Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2013 (Cinema. Passaggi di confine. Collana diretta da Christian Uva), 238 S., ISBN 978-88-498-3937-1, € 14,00.
- Philosopher en langues. Les intraduisibles en traduction. Sous la direction de Barbara Cassin. Paris: Éditions Rue d’Ulm / Presses de l’École Normale Supérieure 2014, Zweite Auflage, 218 Seiten. Evelyn Dueck:L’Étranger intime. Les traductions françaises de l’œuvre de Paul Celan (1971–2010). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2014 [Communicatio. Studien zur europäischen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte], 466 Seiten.
- Elke Sturm-Trigonakis:Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur. Translated from the German by Athanasia Margoni and Maria Kaisar. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2013.
- Kushner, Eva (ed.).L’époque de la Renaissance. Tome III. Maturations et mutations (1520–1560). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2011. 636 pp. (A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXVI)
- Claudia Hillebrandt/Elisabeth Kampmann (Hrsg.):Sympathie und Literatur. Zur Relevanz des Sympathiekonzeptes für die Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2014 (= Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft; 19), 308 Seiten.
- Loescher, Jens:Schreiben. Literarische und wissenschaftliche Innovationen bei Lichtenberg, Jean Paul, Goethe. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2014. 454 S.
- Ernst van Alphen:Staging the Archive. Art and Photography in the Age of New Media. London: Reaktion Books, 2014.
