The clevelopment of "criticism" in German literature

1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 05301059
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Co-operative Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 独語・独文学
• Research Institution: University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: IKEUCHI Osamu University of Tokyo, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (70083277)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HIRANO Yoshihiko University of Tokyo, Faculty of Humanities, Professor, 総合人間学部, 教授 (50079109) ; ISHIMITSU Yasuo University of Tokyo, Faculty of Fine Arts, Assistant Prof., 教養学部, 助教授 (60093366) ; MATSUURA Jun University of Tokyo, Faculty of Letters, Assistant Prof., 文学部, 助教授 (70107522) ; ASAI Kenjiro University of Tokyo, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (30092117) ; SHIBATA Sho University of Tokyo, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (00011312)
• Project Period (FY): 1993 – 1994
• Keywords: Criticism / Moclernism / Post-modernism / Philology / Walter Benjamin / Body / "The Dialectic of Enlightenment" / Botho Strauss

Research Abstract

Our purposes of reseaches were as follows : (1)To reevaluate the sense of criticism in every era. (2)To reexamine our own sense of criticism consciously through this work. (3)To contribute toward the establishment of the new sense of "criticism" in this era, when the name of calender has been changed. We attained our aims in the following two forms.
(1)We clarified extensive views and opinions in the meeting of the 14th to 19th research activities, which were taken place in May and September. Concerning to the era, the modernism and the post-modernism were our topics. We paid, however, porper regard to the tradition of criticism before them. The contents are able to be showed as follows :
-The examination of the criticism of the Romanticist school focusing on Novalis.
-The relation between the German philology and criticism.
-The topos of the criticisms, such as "to be literature" and "to create literature", seeing from the viewpoint of the literature of kafka.
-The relation between body and criticism. when we reflect on the critical literature of W.Benjamin as a clue.
-The reexamination of "The Dialectic of Enlightenment" by Horkheimer and Adorno, a masterpiece of the German criticism in the 20th century.
-"Criticism as a performance" viewing from a work, "The Swelling Songs of Sheeps" by Botho Strauss, which caused a lot of fuss in Germany.
-The criteria of criticism for the era of the post-modernism.
-etc.
(II)In the second half of the year, after we gave more consideration to our studies, we published our results of researches last year and those of this year, which are mentioned above, as a collection of essays.