Volume 27, Issue 1

Martin Luther’s 1522 translation of 2. Tim 2,17a, »vnnd yhr wort das frisset vmb sich wie der krebs«, is depicted as a paradigm shift in the history of cancer metaphors. This study aims to outline this turning point from a philological perspective by tracing this translation, its embedding in theological discourse, and its sources (especially the metaphor of ›creeping‹ cancer - »ut cancer serpit« in the Latin Vulgate, dominant in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and first introduced as a quotation from Ovid’s Metamorphoses -, and a sermon by Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg). Furthermore, the article also traces its transmission into medical discourse and the English language in the 16 th century, demonstrating how the primarily protestant and German metaphor of ›devouring‹ cancer becomes interdenominational, interdiscursive and translingual in just one century, being ultimately included in the 1611 King James Bible as »[a]nd their word will eat as doth a canker«.

The article focusses on a conceptual gap concerning the technical activities of artisans whom we would call today engineers during the Age of Enlightenment. Research has not yet been able to fill this discursive gap systematically, which is located between science and craft. This article will first identify this lacunae and then contribute to further differentiating how knowledge was constructed at that time. It then explores the examples of the discourses surrounding the first balloon flights (after 1783) and the pioneers of aviation, above all the little-appreciated »showman« Jean-Pierre Blanchard, as well as Christian Wolff’s concept of a third man, an early notion of the modern engineer from the spirit of the enlightenment itself. Finally, an analysis of Jean Paul’s tale Das Kampaner Tal (1797) will be presented as a poetic adaptation of the discursive connection between technics and religion.

Alexander von Humboldt’s voyage to South America (1799-1804) was an event of the century. It was accompanied by the discovery of numerous animal and plant species, but also by fascinating descriptions of landscapes, monuments and the indigenous population and their everyday life. This article presents a little-known text by Humboldt that describes a borderline experience that terrified the naturalist, namely the confrontation with the mosquitoes living on the Orinoco. With this example, Humboldt not only shows that in the case of terrible experiences, the objects of research can no longer be described neutrally, but also illustrates that empirical nature research must intertwine with economic, ecological, geopolitical, but above all intercultural and anti-colonial aspects if it wants to take complex phenomena into account.

The following article examines feuilletonistic texts and short prose in which death is treated as the incommensurable. These small pieces appeared in scattered places and explored symbolic behavior and thus the historical point of view taken towards the dead and the past. In these 1920s texts, my article discusses memorial functions shaped by nationalistic and masculinist codes. The cult surrounding the dead-mask plays a central role here. My readings show that it is precisely the small modernist form in its brevity, scarcity, and ephemerality, that takes on an archival function and, in the age of the masses, goes beyond commemorating the »individual spirit« (Hofmannsthal). In conclusion my article will contrast the 1920s pieces with 21 st century essayistic short prose by Durs Grünbein und Mary Ruefle. When these contemporary authors address dead-masks or death cults, they critically question idealism, or, as in the case of Mary Ruefle, heighten it with an almost intimate gesture into the uncanny and grotesque.

Work-immanent interpretation (Werkimmanentes Interpretieren) is a theoretically, methodologically and practically interesting topic with a colorful history. By using Paul Kluckhohn, Fritz Martini, and Heinz Otto Burger as examples, the article traces the lines of development of interpretation in German studies from the Weimar Republic, under Nazism, and to the 1950s. I demonstrate that the didactic and propaedeutic practice of work-immanent interpretation in schools was complementary to the university curriculum from an early stage, balancing, for example, the abstract programs of Geistesgeschichte. The praxeology of German studies has to take these entanglements of school and academic practices into account.

Implicit literary assertions are theses about the real world that fictional works of literature suggest without these theses being propositionally present in the works. This paper first compares different theoretical descriptions of implicit literary assertions and introduces the concept of »implicit thematic assertion « for implicit assertions used in literary appreciation to make aspects of the work understandable as a treatment of a theme. The attribution of such assertions in interpretations and reviews as well as their content is then examined based on a diachronic sample corpus. It is shown that implicit thematic assertions have characteristic content properties (genericity, the occurrence of abstracta and collectives as well as non-conventionalised metaphors) which qualify them as propositional components of a worldview. In a final step, the article shows, through the analysis of an exemplary model interpretation, which prominent role implicit (thematic) assertions play in ideology-critical interpretations.