Metareferentielles Aspektkippen: die Kognitionskunst der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur
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2019-05-22
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Abstract
This dissertation examines metareference as cognition art, prompted by a collision and reconfiguration of antithetic narratives that is sparked by personal or societal change. Those underlying ruptures – perceived or devised – register in literary texts as metaization, the process of initiating structural reflections. A close reading of four contemporary German novels, including one graphic novel, is employed to examine if metareferential strategies indeed lead to the relativization and destruction of meaning, of which they have been accused of, or if they rather enable human cognition to respond to global challenges. By drawing on the concept of fictional metabiographies that encompasses established genres, namely historiographic fiction, fictional biographies, and metamnemonic novels, this investigation shifts away from a narratological approach that relies on a high degree of typological differentiation. The novels Heimsuchung by Jenny Erpenbeck, Liebe schaut weg by Line Hoven, Corpus Delicti by Juli Zeh, and Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud by Christa Wolf are examined to demonstrate a defining trend that acknowledges both differences and analogies in cultural encounters and their representations. The underlying pluriaspectuality will be exemplified by way of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s multistable figures, and will be measured against theoretical frameworks developed by Werner Wolf and Wolfgang Funk. The study results in a new interpretation of metareference that identifies these borderline fictions as a narrative testing ground, deriving them from the maieutic method of the Socratic dialogues: The reader is the test person being prompted to reflect and judge. The narrative lab structure is used to envision a less violent cultural evolution by giving voice to suppressed narratives, provoking polylogic thinking, and rewarding the possibility and process of reconfiguration rather than insisting on essentialist claims. Viewed in this light, metareferential strategies demonstrate an adjusted understanding of rationality: By triggering emotional response, circumventing fixed reader perceptions, and rendering agency accessible, these texts re-frame habitual practices. They do not reject, but complement enlightenment. The pluriaspectual narrative emerges as a template for a more just coexistence through diplomatic renegotiations of complex tasks. Rather than being deconstructed, meaning is traced within its limitations, and enabled with new possibilities.
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Metareference, maieutic method, Hebammenkunst, multistable figures, Kippfigur, Christa Wolf, Jenny Erpenbeck, Line Hoven, Juli Zeh, cognition art, metaization, metafiction, fictional metabiographies, pluriaspectual narratives
Citation
Raedler, B. (2019). Metareferentielles Aspektkippen: die Kognitionskunst der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.