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PD Dr. Stefan Höppner

Research

Schwerpunkte:
  • Gegenwartsliteratur seit den 60er Jahren, speziell Popliteratur
  • Romantik
  • Literatur und Naturwissenschaft
  • Lyrik und Poetik der Klassischen Moderne
  • Popkultur der Gegenwart (speziell Popmusik, Literatur und Comics)
  • Identität und Alterität (besonders USA-Bilder in der deutschen Literatur)
  • Utopische Literatur
  • Literatur- und Medientheorie
  • Autoren: u.a. Arno Schmidt, Johann Gottfried Schnabel, Hermann Hesse
  • Kreatives Scheiben

 

Habilitationsprojekt:
  • Wechselwirkungen zwischen Literatur und Naturwissenschaft in der Romantik 

(u.a. bei Novalis, Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, Henrik Steffens und Lorenz Oken)

Hier eine englischsprachige Zusammenfassung des Projekts:

Cross-currents Between Science and Literature in German Romanticism


Are science and the arts really two separate “cultures”, as English writer Charles Percy Snow maintained in the 1950s? Do they really represent two distinct bodies of knowledge? Today, it is widely acknowledged that this seemingly constant division is subject to historical change. In this light, I am studying German Romanticism as a cultural movement that sought to bridge that gap. But whereas the representation of scientific concepts in writers such as Goethe,Kleist, and Hoffmann is well-researched, few studies have dealt with the interaction of scientific and poetic elements in the literary works of Romanticism’s prominent writing scientists. Therefore, my current research project (leading towards my "Habilitation", or "second book") will focus on such texts in which science and literature interact in a productive manner. To this end, I am examining the writings of five authors, some of which have received little scholarly attention to date:

  • Novalis alias Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772-1801), a trained geologist, ardent philosopher, co-founder of Jena Romanticism
  • Henrik Steffens (1773-1845), geologist, philosopher and author of several novella cycles
  • Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776-1810), founder of electrochemistry, discoverer of ultraviolet light, and author of a book of scientific aphorisms
  • Lorenz Oken (1779-1851), whose journal Isiscombined articles on natural history with political debates and essays on the arts
  • Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert (1780-1860), professor of natural history, author of novels, travelogues, and popular science books


Some leading questions:

  • What is the relationship between science and literature from the perspective of authors active in both fields?
  • How does science fit into the concept of "progressive Universalpoesie" in early Romanticism?
  • How is scientific knowledge represented in literary texts written by scientists? What role does it play in structuring the text?
  • What happens when a scientific text borrows its structure from literary forms such as the Bildungsroman and the Romantic fragment?
  • What exactly is nature for the Romantics -object of scientific study or subject of art?
  • How do literature and science inform each other in early 19th century German culture?
  • How is this relationship linked with the development of modern scientific disciplines?
  • How does the rise of positivist science after 1830 affect the relationship between science and literature in German culture?
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