Martina King – författare

The idea of contagious transmission, either by material particles or by infectious ideas, has played a powerful role in the development of the Western World since antiquity. Yet it acquired quite a precise signature during the process of scientific and cultural differentiation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This volume explores the significance and cultural functions of contagionism in this period, from notions of infectious homosexuality and the concept of social contagion to the political implications of bacteriological fieldwork. The history of the concept ‘microbe’ in aesthetic modernism is adressed as well as bacteriological metaphors in American literary historiography. Within this broad framework, contagionism as a literary narrative is approached in more focussed contributions: from its emotional impact in literary modernism to the idea of physical or psychic contagion in authors such as H.G. Wells, Kurt Lasswitz, Gustav Meyrinck, Ernst Weiss, Thomas Mann and Max Frisch. This twofold approach of general topics and individual literary case studies produces a deeper understanding of the symbolic implications of contagionism marking the boundaries between sick and healthy, familiar and alien, morally pure and impure.

The idea of contagious transmission, either by material particles or by infectious ideas, has played a powerful role in the development of the Western World since antiquity. Yet it acquired quite a precise signature during the process of scientific and cultural differentiation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This volume explores the significance and cultural functions of contagionism in this period, from notions of infectious homosexuality and the concept of social contagion to the political implications of bacteriological fieldwork. The history of the concept ‘microbe’ in aesthetic modernism is adressed as well as bacteriological metaphors in American literary historiography.

Within this broad framework, contagionism as a literary narrative is approached in more focussed contributions: from its emotional impact in literary modernism to the idea of physical or psychic contagion in authors such as H.G. Wells, Kurt Lasswitz, Gustav Meyrinck, Ernst Weiss, Thomas Mann and Max Frisch. This twofold approach of general topics and individual literary case studies produces a deeper understanding of the symbolic implications of contagionism marking the boundaries between sick and healthy, familiar and alien, morally pure and impure.

The series Studien zur deutschen Literatur (Studies in German Literature) presents outstanding analyses of German-speaking literature from the early modern period to the present day. It particularly embraces comparative, cultural and historical-epistemological questions and serves as a tradition-steeped forum for innovative literary research. All submitted manuscripts undergo a double peer-review process.

The series Studien zur deutschen Literatur (Studies in German Literature) presents outstanding analyses of German-speaking literature from the early modern period to the present day. It particularly embraces comparative, cultural and historical-epistemological questions and serves as a tradition-steeped forum for innovative literary research. All submitted manuscripts undergo a double peer-review process.

It has become a truism that we all think in the narrative mode, both in everyday life and in science. But what does this mean precisely? Scholars tend to use the term ‘narrative’ in a broad sense, implying not only event-sequencing but also the representation of emotions, basic perceptual processes or complex analyses of data sets. The volume addresses this blind spot by using clear selection criteria: only non-fictional texts by experts are analysed through the lens of both classical and postclassical narratology – from Aristotle to quantum physics and from nineteenth-century psychiatry to early childhood psychology; they fall under various genres such as philosophical treatises, case histories, textbooks, medical reports, video clips, and public lectures. The articles of this volume examine the central but continuously shifting role that event-sequencing plays within scholarly and scientific communication at various points in history – and the diverse functions it serves such as eye witnessing, making an argument, inferencing or reasoning. Thus, they provide a new methodological framework for both literary scholars and historians of science and medicine.

It has become a truism that we all think in the narrative mode, both in everyday life and in science. But what does this mean precisely? Scholars tend to use the term ‘narrative’ in a broad sense, implying not only event-sequencing but also the representation of emotions, basic perceptual processes or complex analyses of data sets. The volume addresses this blind spot by using clear selection criteria: only non-fictional texts by experts are analysed through the lens of both classical and postclassical narratology – from Aristotle to quantum physics and from nineteenth-century psychiatry to early childhood psychology; they fall under various genres such as philosophical treatises, case histories, textbooks, medical reports, video clips, and public lectures. The articles of this volume examine the central but continuously shifting role that event-sequencing plays within scholarly and scientific communication at various points in history – and the diverse functions it serves such as eye witnessing, making an argument, inferencing or reasoning. Thus, they provide a new methodological framework for both literary scholars and historians of science and medicine.

It has become a truism that we all think in the narrative mode, both in everyday life and in science. But what does this mean precisely? Scholars tend to use the term ‘narrative’ in a broad sense, implying not only event-sequencing but also the representation of emotions, basic perceptual processes or complex analyses of data sets. The volume addresses this blind spot by using clear selection criteria: only non-fictional texts by experts are analysed through the lens of both classical and postclassical narratology – from Aristotle to quantum physics and from nineteenth-century psychiatry to early childhood psychology; they fall under various genres such as philosophical treatises, case histories, textbooks, medical reports, video clips, and public lectures. The articles of this volume examine the central but continuously shifting role that event-sequencing plays within scholarly and scientific communication at various points in history – and the diverse functions it serves such as eye witnessing, making an argument, inferencing or reasoning. Thus, they provide a new methodological framework for both literary scholars and historians of science and medicine.

Die Untersuchungen in diesem Band hinterfragen den Wandel von statischen hin zu dynamischen, ''verzeitlichten'' Ordnungsschemata naturkundlichen Wissens, der sich im historischen Prozess der Ausdifferenzierung naturwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert in Literatur, Natur-, Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften vollzogen hat. Ziel des Hefts ist es, Fragen nach der Funktionsweise historischer Wissenschaftsmetaphern im interdisziplinären Spektrum mit Fragen nach der Funktionalität unterschiedlicher metapherntheoretischer Zugriffe zu verbinden.Die Beiträge spannen den Bogen von historischen Umbrüchen der Metapherntheorie (1800/1900) über metaphorologische Fallanalysen vor allem zum 19. Jahrhundert bis hin zu kritischen Reflexionen auf metaphernanalytische Methoden der Gegenwart. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Metaphern wie ''Fort-/Verpflanzung'', ''Schicht'', ''Milieu'', ''Kampf'', ''(Wahl‑)Verwandtschaft'', ''Parasit'' und damit Metaphernkomplexe in Sprachtheorie, Philologie, Botanik, Bakteriologie, Kosmologie, Soziologie, Geologie (Geognosie, Vulkanismus), Chemie, aber auch die ''Metapher'' selbst, die wissenschaftliche wie literarisch-ästhetische Diskurse und Denkbewegungen prägten.INHALTSVERZEICHNISGunhild Berg / Martina King / Reto Rössler: Metaphorologien der Exploration und Dynamik (1800/1900). Zur EinführungBEITRäGEHistorische Umbrüche der Metapherntheorie (1800 und 1900)- Rainer Godel: Metapher (als Metapher) des Nicht-Wissens: Zu Johann Gottfried Herders Theorie und Praxis der Metapher- Benjamin Specht: "Verbindung finden wir im Bilde". Die Metapher in und zwischen den wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen im späten 19. Jahrhundert​Metaphorologische Fallanalysen zum 19. Jahrhundert- Sarah Goeth: Fortpflanzung – Verpflanzung. Vegetabile Metaphern in den Wissenskulturen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts- Peter Schnyder: übereinander/nacheinander. Zur Metaphorologie der Schicht- Eva Johach: Die Dynamisierung des Kosmos. Charles Fouriers utopische Wissenschaft- Philip Ajouri: Der Kampf ums Dasein als Metapher der Dynamik im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts- Nicolas Pethes: Milieu. Die Exploration selbstgenerierter Umwelten in Wissenschaft und Ästhetik des 19. Jahrhunderts- Martina King: Bild oder Erzählung? Explorative und dynamische Dimensionen von bakteriologischen Metaphern um 1900- Nicholas Saul: ''Auf der Kippe stehen''. Der Vulkanismus als Wissenschaftsmetapher von der politischen zur ökologischen Revolution: Goethe – Jensen – HohlerDISKUSSIONMetapherntheoretische Reflexionen und Interventionen- Gunnar Berg / Rainer Godel: Die Begriffe ''Verwandtschaft'' und ''Wahlverwandtschaft'' in der Chemie. Zur Geschichte einer Metapher- Johanna Bohley: Die Emergenz des Metaphorischen- Thomas Wegmann: Zur Metaphorologie des Parasitären- Carolin Bohn: Die Produktivität der Metapher ABSTRACTSADRESSEN