Martin Vöhler – författare

Der Essayband informiert über den Stand und die Tendenzen der Antikerezeption in der deutsch-sprachigen Literatur der Gegenwart. Im Zentrum steht das anhaltende Wirkungspotential der antiken Tradition, ihre Lebendigkeit und Vielfalt. Dabei werden die unterschiedlichen Ansätze und Perspektiven im Zugriff auf die Antike herausgestellt. Die Beiträge behandeln Texte von Brasch, Braun, Fichte, Fried, Grünbein, Hacks, Haefs, Handke, Jens, Köhlmeier, Kunert, Müller, Ransmayr, Schütz, Strauß und Wolf. Sie sind exemplarisch angelegt und schenken den Fragen der literarischen Form sowie der Funktion der Antikerezeption im Kontext des jeweiligen Gesamtwerks besondere Aufmerksamkeit. Zusätzlich zu den Essays (von Klassischen Philologen und Germanisten, die zum Gebiet der Antikerezeption einschlägig gearbeitet haben) sind programmatische Beiträge von den Autoren selbst, die eigens für diesen Band geschrieben und ausgewählt wurden, aufgenommen.

The concept of corrected myths is not (yet) established in literary studies. This volume introduces this concept and demonstrates its power using exemplary interpretations. It is the case that in numerous literary works, knowledge of a conventional mythical connection is assumed, but then, at a particular point, the traditional narrative is negated - Candaule's wife was not beautiful, the Sirens did not sing, Oedipus was not surprised by the news (Brecht) etc. The corrections always occur at a significant point, so that the intervention casts a new light on well-known narratives, but in principle does not affect the core of the myth. The present volume examines the forms and functions of such corrected myths. For this, relevant works of European literature are studied and their interpretation related with considerations of Antique myths, Christian corrections of myths, new mythology and the correction of myths from existentialism to post-modernism. The spectrum of texts examined is kept as wide as possible in order not to truncate the concept of correction to an illegitimate degree.The texts include those from authors such as Heiner Muller, Thomas Brasch, Christa Wolf und Volker Braun and by Shakespeare, Goethe and Kleist.

In modern art, central importance is accorded to the diverse experiences of physical and mental violence. The resultant question of the forms of presentation of violence and the reasons for taking pleasure in tragic objects is however one which was already posed in Classical Greece in a comparable fashion. The studies in this volume arose from a symposium run by the Collaborative Research Centers on “Esthetic experience and the dissolution of artistic limits”. After reviewing the history of the 5th century B.C. with its intensive experience of violence, they examine the tension between violence and aesthetics in the fields of myth, cult, and literature with particular reference to tragedy and visual art.

Aristotle uses the concept of catharsis at various points in his writings - in his works on reproduction, on zoology, on physics, and on politics. In his "Poetics", the concept is deployed metaphorically in order to determine the purpose of tragedy. Which models of catharsis was Aristotle acquainted with, and what was the relationship between them? Proceeding from a detailed foreword, the specialist papers provide an overview of the use of the term in the different areas of biology, medicine, ritual, cult, music theory, psychology and philosophy. Working on a broad collaborative interdisciplinary basis, the authors determine the specific functions of the various conceptions of catharsis and thus clarify the foundations for the concept in poetology.

Ambiguity in the sense of two or more possible meanings is considered to be a distinctive feature of modern art and literature. It characterizes the "open artwork" (Eco) and is generated by "disruptive tactics" (Wellershoff) and strategies to engender uncertainty. While ambiguity is seen as a "paradigm of modernity" (Bode), there is skepticism regarding its use in the pre-modern era. Older studies were dominated by the conviction that there was a lack of ambiguity in pre-modernity because, according to the rules of the "old rhetoric", ambiguity was seen as an avoidable error (vitium) and a violation of the dictate of clarity (perspicuitas). The aim of the volume is to re-examine the putative "absence of ambiguity" in the pre-modern era. Is it not possible to find clear examples of deliberately employed (intended) ambiguity in antiquity? Are the oracles and riddles, the Palinode of Stesichoros and Socrates (Phaedrus), the dissoi logoi of rhetoric, the ambiguities of the tragedies all exceptions or do they not indicate a distinct interest in the artistic use of ambiguity? The presentations of the conference, which will include scholars from various philologies, will combine a recourse to theoretical concepts of intended ambiguity with exemplary analyses from the field of pre-modern art and literature.

Key aspects of philhellenism – political self-determination, freedom, beauty, individual greatness – originate in antiquity and present a complex reception history. The force of European philhellenism derives from ancient Roman idealizations, which have been drawn on by European movements since the Enlightenment. How is philhellenism able to transcend national, cultural and epochal limits? The articles collected in this volume deal with (1) the ancient conceptualization of philhellenism, (2) the actualization and politicization of the term at the time of the European Restoration (1815–30), and (3) the transformation of philhellenism into a pan-European movement. During the Greek struggle for independence the different receptions of philhellenism regain a common focus; philhellenism becomes an inextricable element in the creation of a pan-European identity and a starting point for the regeneration and modernization of Greece. – It is easy to criticize the tradition of philhellenism as being simplistic, naïve, and self-serving, but there is an irreducibly utopian element in later philhellenic idealizations of ancient Greece.

The volume argues that the parenthesis, a rhetorical figure of speech and thought, can offer fresh insights into classical reception studies. By using the analogy of the parenthesis, we may conceptualize the received past as inserted into the present while remaining somehow apart from the present. Hence Graeco-Roman antiquity is considered as being simultaneously ‘in’ and ‘to the side of’ the receptive work. Along these lines, the volume reviews parenthesis as a heuristic tool in ancient and modern cultures, by applying it to various artistic media such as literature, theatre, art and cinema and to disciplines such as scholarship and translation. The 22 chapters of the volume are written by scholars specializing in classics, aesthetics, comparative literature and cultural studies, thus highlighting the ‘parentheses of reception’ as a fascinating topic that may attract readers from different disciplines and academic fields.