The Cultural Work of Fictions

Trajectories of Literary Studies in the 21st Century
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-3-86821-912-8
Verlag: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier

Buch, Englisch, 216 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 225 mm, Gewicht: 400 g

Reihe: ELCH

Taking its cue from the ubiquity of fictions in current society – regularly dubbed ‘post-truth’ era – this volume dedicates itself to the examination of fictions, the cultural work they engage in, and the functions they fulfill. We employ a broad definition of the notion of fiction that takes into account literary fictions as well as cultural fictions and pays respect to their pervasiveness and affordances. The contributions to this volume engage in exemplary analyses that offer a collection of the various facets of the cultural work of fictions. By way of model interpretations and case studies, the articles explore the interfaces of literary and socio-cultural fictions and the cultural work these fictions accomplish. The contributors to this conceptual collection address one of the main research agendas in the contemporary study of literature and culture – namely the role and functions of fictions – and, on this basis, deliberate the trajectories of the study of literature and culture. In this way, they also contribute to strengthening the very institutional importance of literary studies in the academic landscape of the 21st century. CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................. vii IMKE POLLAND-SCHMANDT AND ANSGAR NÜNNING Introducing the Cultural Work of Fictions: Theoretical and Conceptual Explorations ..................................................................... 1 I. THE CULTURAL WORK OF FICTIONS: EXPLORING THE INTERFACES OF SOCIO-CULTURAL AND LITERARY FICTIONS ANGELA LOCATELLI Fiction as Play: Theoretical and Literary Perspectives on Simulation (Embodied or Not) ....................................................................................................... 23 PETER HANENBERG Re-reading Peter Weiss: Life in Fiction – Fiction in Life ............................................ 35 VERA HEROLD From Fact to Fiction: The Travels of a Memory .......................................................... 47 SARIANNA KANKKUNEN Worldmaking and Metaphors: Gauging the Nordic Welfare State Project in Maarit Verronen’s Varjonainen (2013) .................................................................... 65 MAREIKE GLIER Fiction as a Platform for the Negotiation of Cultural Models in Elisabeth Elliot’s Essay Series On Asking God Why (1989) .................................... 81 DARIA STEINER Hunger Worlds and World Hunger: The Cultural Work of Famine Fiction ................. 97 II. FICTIONS ENGAGING IN CULTURAL WORK: POTENTIALITIES OF TEXTS AND TRAJECTORIES OF LITERARY STUDIES MARKUS HUSS Overhearing in the Underground: The Cultural Work of Listening in Wolfgang Hilbig’s “Ich” (1993) ............................................................................. 115 DIMITRI SMIRNOV Literary Sonic Imagination and the Cultural Work of Fictional Texts within Sound Culture: A Case Study of Wajdi Mouawad’s Incendies (2003) ............ 129 ALENA HEINRITZ Textual Work as Practice of Evidence Production in Novels by Guzel’ Yakhina and Aleksandr Ilichevskii ............................................ 145 IIDA TURPEINEN Knowledge without Language? Functions of Narration in Ben Marcus’ The Flame Alphabet (2012) .............................................................. 161 FREDRIK RENARD “[A]usserhalb unserem kleinen Horizont”: Christoph Martin Wieland’s Geschichte des Agathon (1766–1767) as World Literature .................................................................................................... 175 ELEONORA RAPISARDI Rhizomatic Trajectories of Literary Studies: Polyphony and Family Relations in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban (1992) ... 191 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS .............................................................. 203

Autoren/Hrsg.

Polland-Schmandt, Imke

Nünning, Ansgar