Literary Journalism. Heinrich von Kleist's Concept of the Public Sphere

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07171
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: European literature
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: NISHIO Takahiro 慶應義塾大学, 商学部(日吉), 講師 (70781962)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: ハインリヒ・フォン・クライスト / ユルゲン・ハーバーマス / 公共圏 / ジャーナリズム / ドイツ文学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the daily newspaper "Evening Paper of Berlin (Berliner Abendblaetter)" (1810/11) by the Prussian writer and journalist, Heinrich von Kleist, in the historical and actual contexts of the public sphere. The news in the paper contains both truths and lies, which is clearly in conflict with the principles of the enlightened journalism that aims for a reasonable deliberation and for making a public opinion. On the other hand, it is also insisted by the publisher that what he reports is always "true" and indicated that his paper serves the public as a forum for various opinions. The "Evening Paper of Berlin" is very ambivalent about the idea of the "bourgeois public sphere" in the sense of Juergen Habermas, but at the same time it can be also a representative example of the modern journalism because its opposite tendencies to construct and destruct a normative order are corresponding to the two roles attributed to the modern newspapers.

Free Research Field

近代ドイツ文学