2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Aesthetic Perspectives of Travel-Essays in German Speaking Literature
| Project/Area Number |
19K00501
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Metropolitan University |
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Principal Investigator |
シュレンドルフ レオポルト 東京都立大学, 人文科学研究科, 准教授 (20773188)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
山本 浩司 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 教授 (80267442)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | Essayism / Spatial Turn / Globalization / Yugoslavia / Handke / Gender / Subjectivity |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
As a part of a research trip to Austria in March 2022, we were able to view and evaluate numerous archive materials in the Austrian National Library and the library of Vienna University, esp. at the department of German studies. In addition, we intensified the internationalization of our project by discussing further collaborations with the Austrian Academic Exchange Service. We are in close cooperation with our research partners in China (Guangzhou University) and Germany (University of Stuttgart) and we had fruitful discussions with them on the topic of essayism in German-language travel literature in several online meetings.
We have also improved our methodology, considering the latest research in the field of narratology. In particular, we are interested in the implications of the term "Narrative", an English loanword, referring to an analytical category not only used in literature (and literature theory), but also in disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology and in natural sciences. We considered esp. related works by Norman Aechtler, Wolfgang Mueller-Funk, Clifford Geertz, Andreas Hamburger and Hayden White.
Especially, we made progress in the field of Peter Handke's texts on the wars in the Balkans (1991-2001), which we compared with Goethe's war prose (1822). The precarious circumstances of traveling in times of war are reflected in the travel essays of the two authors and add a special political dimension to their essayistic writing.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
Due to travel restrictions and cancellations of conferences caused by the COVID-19, some delays occurred in our research activities. As we are an international collaboration with partners in Japan, China, and Germany, we had to deal simultaneously with different stages and developments of the pandemic. The counter measures in different countries appeared to be highly variable and at times unpredictable. Universities, libraries, and archives had been closed or partly closed at least to a certain extent.
Even we made use of digital research opportunities, it was impossible to replace research in literature archives such as Marbach, Germany and Vienna, Austria.
As a replacement for holding an international conference in Tokyo, we are now planning an online (or hybrid) conference with our cooperation partners in Germany and China. Therefore, we have to apply to extend the research project for one year.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Our contacts with European cooperation partners and research institutions in German-speaking countries can be intensified again due to the easing of travel restrictions from and to Europe. Research trips to the literature archive in Marbach (Germany) and to the Handke archive in Vienna (Austria) are planned. The continuously limited travel between China and Japan is a challenge to our highly interconnected project. We will therefore intensify online contact with our Chinese partners. As mentioned above, we will organize a conference in Tokyo at Waseda University on site and offer online participation for our international cooperation partners. This "hybrid“-conference will take place in December 2022. In terms of content, we will particularly highlight travel essays under the conditions of crises, considering the recent developments of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we were unable to pursue some of our international research activities, incl. planned journeys to overseas institutions. Our contacts with European cooperation partners and research institutions in German-speaking countries can now be intensified again due to the easing of travel restrictions to Europe, so we plan journeys to the literature archive in Marbach (Germany) and to the Handke archive in Vienna (Austria). Furthermore, it was impossible to invite our partners to Japan and we had to postpone an international conference in Tokyo. For these reasons, there are still funds available, which we intent to use this year, esp. for a hybrid-conference in Tokyo and for journeys to Austria and Germany.
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