{"title":"The Role of Empathy in Literary Reading: From Einfühlung to the Neuroscience of Embodied Cognition, with the Example of Kafka's The Metamorphosis","authors":"Pierre-Louis Patoine","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In the second half of the nineteenth century, Hermann Lotze, Robert Vischer, and Theodor Lipps pioneered the notion of Einfühlung, a term translated into the English empathy by Edward Titchener in 1911. This article investigates the role of empathy in literary reading by reconnecting it to its origins in the theories of Einfühlung and by revisiting these theories in the light of neuropsychological studies of embodied cognition carried out since the nineties. Contemporary to the coinage of the term empathy and to the broader dissemination of the notion of Einfühlung, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915) is here used as a test terrain for the hypotheses generated by this investigation. Kafka's novella shows us how literature can use \"fantastic cognition\" (Kukkonen) to open a space of empathic indetermination in which the reader can resonate with structures of feeling extended beyond \"normal\" human sensorimotor forms.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"16 1","pages":"11 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88186918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding Irony in Literary Texts: A Cognitive Approach","authors":"S. Richter, H. Leuthold","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Cognitive approaches are particularly appealing when it comes to phenomena that can be adequately described only when their mental processing is taken into account. The phenomenon of irony is one of them. While there has been a plethora of semantic and structural analytic approaches in literary studies and linguistics that have focused on irony, the question is to what extent irony is already inherent in the texts themselves, to what extent it is only recognizable from contexts, and whether we recognize irony as such equally at all.In this article, we combine approaches from literary studies, cognitive psychology, and psycholinguistics in a corpus-based study. We ask whether irony is recognizable from certain textual features, such as genre or style. To determine this, we undertook a questionnaire study that indeed supports the conclusion that it is. It is the goal of the article to stimulate further contributions of this kind in order to explore the potential of a cognitive approach for the processing of irony in literary texts, providing a sound basis for future neuro-aesthetic investigations.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"22 1","pages":"101 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82516087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Babylon Berlin: Bargaining with Shadows","authors":"Lisa Zunshine","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Working within cognitive television and media studies, this essay explores social cognition and emotion regulation involved in watching the popular German television series Babylon Berlin.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"36 1","pages":"38 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77249773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Louise Nuttall. Mind Style and Cognitive Grammar: Language and Worldview in Speculative Fiction","authors":"P. Hogan","doi":"10.3138/seminar.58.1.rev002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.58.1.rev002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73688218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Erica Wickerson. The Architecture of Narrative Time: Thomas Mann and the Problems of Modern Narrative","authors":"Kevin P. Eubanks","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80262024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Claudia Lauer, Uta Störmer-Caysa, and Anna Sara Lahr, eds. Handbuch Frauenlob","authors":"Walker Horsfall","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81867785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Visualizing Disease and ‘Depravity’ in the Weimar Republic: The Film Roles and Dance Performances of Anita Berber and Otto Dix’s Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber","authors":"Kaia L. Magnusen","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:During Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33), women who did not conform to conventional expectations for “proper” female behaviour were met with suspicion and criticism. Due to their embrace of sexual liberation and economic independence, interwar New Women were often unfairly associated with prostitutes and cultural degeneration. Anita Berber, a drug-addicted nude dancer and actress in multiple Aufklärungsfilme, was regarded as the embodiment of debauched modern womanhood. However, her persona intrigued Neue Sachlichkeit artist, Otto Dix, who enjoyed offending bourgeois sensibilities. Dix captured her likeness in the painting Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber (1925) but altered her features to make her look aged and sickly. Amid growing bourgeois fears about postwar societal decay, Dix utilized Berber’s painted body to engage Weimar discourses about the threat of the sexually liberated Neue Frau, the pervasiveness of the so-called depravity of metropolitan life, and the fear of the loosening grip of patriarchal social control.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"229 1","pages":"335 - 359"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75021494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tiffany N. Florvil and Vanessa D. Plumly, eds. Rethinking Black German Studies: Approaches, Interventions and Histories","authors":"Maureen O. Gallagher","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"176 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90648325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jörg Echternkamp and Stephan Jaeger, eds. Views of Violence: Representing the Second World War in German and European Museums and Memorials. Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association, Vol. 19","authors":"A. Etges","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.rev004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"95 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72440384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Sound of Life in Marcel Beyer’s Flughunde (The Karnau Tapes)","authors":"Arina Rotaru","doi":"10.3138/seminar.57.4.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.57.4.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In Marcel Beyer’s celebrated Flughunde (1995), the discovery of an underground archive of sound in the aftermath of the Cold War—preserved despite strategies apparently calling for its mechanical destruction—reassigns agency and voice to instrumentalized victims of National Socialism. By highlighting the close connection between an alleged security custodian of the archive, the actual National Socialist sound cartographer Hermann Karnau, and Moreau, a character bearing a strong resemblance to the protagonist of H. G. Wells’s 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, Beyer’s novel draws attention to a utopian experiment with life that was carried out in the wake of the colonial enterprise in the Pacific and posits additional historical undertones manifested in Karnau’s National Socialist experiments with sound. Karnau’s attempt to master vocal timbre in particular foregrounds technologies that make it possible to manipulate voice and memory in the post-Fascist and post-Communist present. In spite of technological alteration, archived voices of colonial and National Socialist subjects manifest a vitalist aesthetic. With its concern for race, sound, and memory, the novel breaks new ground in telling the story of the National Socialist and colonial past in the aftermath of the Cold War.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"35 1","pages":"360 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86954769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}