2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study of Literary Anthropology in Germany in the Eighteenth Century
| Project/Area Number |
15520175
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Osaka University |
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Principal Investigator |
TSUDA Yasuo Osaka University, Graduate School of Language and Culture, Associate Professor, 言語文化研究科, 助教授 (20236897)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | German Literature / Anthropology / Eighteenth Century |
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| Research Abstract |
In this study I researched the process of the birth of anthropology as a new human science in Germany in the eighteenth century and examined the new image of human beings which can be observed in literature. In the first half of the eighteenth century there appeared a new medical theory based on the "influxus physicus" against the theories of "cause occasionnelle" or "harmonie preetablie". A.von Haller explained the connection of body and soul by the theory of nerves and "spiritus vitalis". On the other hand, philosophers studied the competences and functions of soul. These streams met together in Halle about 1750 and produced a new human science which understands human being as a combination of body and soul and inquires into various phenomena on the base of experience and observation. We can see some typical examples in Kruger's "experimental psychology", Nicolai's theory of imagination, Meier's theory of emotions. E.Platner gave the name of "anthropology" to the new science and tried to build a theoretical system to it.
This new anthropology found various symptoms of modern human beings which had lost the harmony of body and soul. The typical symptoms like melancholy and delusion became important themes of literature, and "literary anthropology" was born from such a combination of literature and anthropology. Ch.M.Wieland treated the problems of delusion with the inner growth of an individual in his novels "Don Sylvio" and "Agathon" and made typical examples of "anthropological novels". Fr.von Blanckenburg presented a theory of modern novels after the models of Wieland's novels and considered the "inner history" as the most important element of modern novels. K.Ph.Moritz planed a new empirical psychology and built up the new genre of "psychological novel" with his novel "Anton Reiser". Fr.Schiller applied the literary anthropology to his novels and dramas and developed a theory of aesthetic education
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