Heiner Weidmann:

Die doppelte Salome. Zur Konstruktion der Femme fatale

The intertextual discourse which goes by the name of »Salome« is made up of history and fiction, images and theories. It takes a new turn in the 19^th century when Salome comes to be constructed as a »femme fatale«. In order to make this construction work a few issues need to be resolved: Is all this about Salome or Herodias? And why is it so hard to read Salome? Is it because she is a deep abyss of signification, or because she is completely insignificant and superficial? What images, texts and forms of dancing does this ambiguity lead to? And how does the »dance of the seven veils« become some form of striptease?

Dietmar Voss

Perceiving the dramatic disappearance of the father principle in all fields of modern society, this essay commemorates the cultural functions of the father’s part and the dialectic of his work. It interprets the social decline of the father principle as an inevitable result of capitalist global modernization and its dynamics of transgression. The contradictory consequences of that process for the ›lost‹ sons, who will be eternal and structural sons in a near transhistorical time, are reconstructed here by interpreting – using philosophical and psychoanalytical methods – literary works by Shakespeare (Hamlet), Hofmannsthal, Kafka, Bronnen, Hemingway, and Heiner Müller. It will become evident that the collapse of the father-institution was an important stimulus for the creative explosion in modernist poetry and art.

Susanne Kaul

Travelling in Uncharted Territories. The ›ungefähre Landschaft‹ (Peter Stamm) as a Metaphor for the Self

Obwohl es so aussieht, als ob Peter Stamms Roman Ungefähre Landschaft (2001) wie die Reise eines Individuums zu sich selbst strukturiert sei, wird die für das Genre des Bildungsromans kennzeichnende teleologische Idee der Selbstverwirklichung verneint. Im Unterschied zu den idealistischen Konzeptionen eines autonomen Subjekts sowie zu der hermeneutischen Vorstellung einer narrativen Identität entwickelt der Philosoph Rüdiger Bittner ein Konzept des Selbst, das sich auf Stamms Metapher der ›Ungefähren Landschaft‹ abbilden lässt – eine Überschneidung zwischen Literatur und Philosophie im gegenwärtigen Diskurs.

Sandra Pott

Wirtschaft in Literatur. ›Ökonomische Subjekte‹ im Wirtschaftsroman der Gegenwart

This essay analyses the treatment of economics in contemporary German novels, particularly in Burckhard Spinnen’s Der schwarze Grat (2003) and Ernst-Wilhelm Händler’s Wenn ›wir‹ sterben (2002). After briefly summarising the tradition of German literature dealing with business world and the attitudes of various economic theorists towards the entrepreneur, this article illustrates the different literary, philosophical and economic traditions that the novels of Spinnen and Händler work in and subvert.

Urs Meyer

Drama, Narration, Mythos. Werben mit den Mitteln der Poesie

Whereas linguistics has been predominantly concerned with textual and semiotic characteristics of advertising in general (e.g., puns, metaphors, slogans, icons, etc.) there has been little theoretical and empirical work to date to demonstrate the role of ›poetogenic‹ structures in advertising. In order to illustrate the various ways in which the Poetry Principle affects contemporary advertising culture, this article focuses on the use of narrative, dramatic and mythological concepts.