Rainer Stollmann – författare

Among other titles, Alexander Kluge has been described over the course of the past few decades by colleagues, critics and academics as an encyclopedist, a "chronicler of the century", "narrator of critical theory", or the "only large-scale project developer we have today" (Habermas). Such titles are merely endeavours to find a term to cover the whole interdisciplinary gamut of his works (running from literary, to film, theoretical and televisual work), which over more than five decades have developed a rhizomatic structure that is difficult to keep track of, even for authorities on Kluge.The Alexander Kluge Yearbook attempts to remedy this situation. Through the publication of new texts, it reflectsthe continued development of the history of his oeuvre, bringing together the results of international Kluge research, presenting documents from earlier periods and thus offering insight into the way he works. Each volume will contain, finally, an updated bibliography (of primary and research literature) and videography (of DCTP productions).

Adorno characterized Critical Theory as a message in a bottle in 1940 when the exiled Frankfurt School''s sphere of influence was an ocean away from the catastrophes of fascism it sought to fight. Turning Adorno''s metaphor on its head some six decades later, Kluge likens his creative method in the interview with Oskar Negt that opens the second volume of the Kluge-Jahrbuch to echoes of light refracted through a bottle: "I can also see something by looking through shards of glass," he explains. Deploying this turn of phrase as its point of departure, this issue of the Jahrbuch devotes its attention first to Kluge''s theory work written with Negt, its roots in and adaptation of the Frankfurt School tradition as well as its indebtedness to other schools of thought. In the remainder of the volume, scholars working in five different disciplines across the humanities query Kluge''s ways of seeing in film, television and literature.

Marx spricht im »Kapital« von den »animal spirits«, den »Lebensgeistern«. Sie erwachen, wenn Menschen räumlich zusammen sind. So ist schon ein Publikum keinesfalls die bloße Summe von Einzelnen. Das Wichtigste geschieht zwischen den Menschen, denn: »Keiner ist alleine schlau genug.« »Kooperation« gibt es aber auch in ihnen: »Ich denke, weil ich davon absehen kann, daß ich bin. Ich bin nämlich keineswegs allein, sondern in mir sind die anderen, und die denken unaufhörlich, weil das ihre Notwehrform ist.« In Alexander Kluges Begriffsinventar und in seiner praktischen Arbeit ist »Kooperation« eines der wichtigsten Stichwörter. Das Jahrbuch 2017 konzentriert sich darauf. Marx speaks in "Das Kapital" of the "animal spirits", the "spirits of life". They awaken when people are together spatially. Thus, an audience is by no means a mere sum of individuals. The most important things happen between people, because: "No one person who stands alone is smart enough". "Cooperation" is also within them: "I think I am, because I can ignore it. I am actually by no means alone; others are within me, and they think incessantly, because that is their form of self-defence." In Alexander Kluge''s conceptual inventory as well as in his practical work, "cooperation" is one of the most important key words to be noted. This will be the focal point of the 2017 Yearbook.

Der Wunsch nur ein paar Wochen oder Monate in die Zukunft blicken zu können, ist in Europa seit dem 24. Februar 2022 vermutlich enorm gewachsen. Sie war nach 1945 nie so ungewiss wie jetzt. Die Deformation der klassischen Öffentlichkeit ist massiv. Die Erinnerungen an Krieg sind so blass, dass die Kunst, sich seinem Sog zu entziehen, als Feigheit, Unmoral, Schwäche erscheint. Auf diesen gesamten Zusammenhang der schockartigen Anwesenheit des Krieges bei einer Politik, die nach alter Gewohnheit vorgibt, alles im Griff zu haben, anstatt sich auf die Gefahr der wirklichen Situation zu besinnen, ist mit dem Suchbegriff oder der Suchmetapher »Maulwurf Krieg« gezielt.The desire to look only a few weeks or months into the future has probably grown enormously in Europe since February 24, 2022. The situation has never been as uncertain after 1945 as it is now. The deformation of the classical public sphere is massive. Memories of war are so pale that the art of evading its pull appears as cowardice, immorality, weakness. The search term or metaphor "mole war" is aimed at this entire context of the shocking presence of war in a politics that, according to old habit, pretends to have everything under control instead of reflecting on the danger of the real situation.