Historical Developments of the Public Sphere in Germany. Cultural-Historical Preconditions of Modern Journalism

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K12346
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02040:European literature-related
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Nishio Takahiro 慶應義塾大学, 文学部(三田), 准教授 (70781962)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: ドイツ文学 / 公共圏 / ジャーナリズム / 文化史 / マスメディア / 19世紀 / 時間意識 / フィクション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research has illuminated some of the cultural-historical preconditions of the "public sphere" from the standpoints of "temporality" and "fictionality", by means of the case studies of the 18th- and 19th-century German literature.
In the self-understanding of the writers of that time, one can first point out a kind of oscillation between two time-consciousnesses: the instantaneousness of publications consumed in ceaselessly changing modes and the eternity of the literary works read on by the following generations. Secondly, they correspond in part to the awareness of the mutability and immutability of a "truth", which suggests the writers' reflection on the fictional character of their own work, that is, of literature. Based on this observation, one could assume that the modern public sphere that emerged in the age of the Enlightenment, whose basic values were the truth and reason, has required paradoxically the literary mediations since its origin.

Free Research Field

近代ドイツ文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

近代的公共圏の文化史的諸前提に、「時間性」と「虚構性」という観点から光を当てた本研究の学術的意義は、これまで主に社会科学の分野で議論されてきた「公共圏」という主題に対し、「文芸公共圏」概念（J・ハーバーマス）の持つ重要性を再評価するための具体的展望を示した点に認められる。また、本来的にフィクションによって媒介された空間として公共圏を捉える本研究の視座は、公共の言論における虚実の境が曖昧化され、世論や社会運動の形成に際して他者の「共感」を集めることの重要性が高まっている現代のメディア環境において、新たな公共圏モデルを構想するための基盤的知見として、潜在的な社会的意義を有している。