ABOUT THIS BOOK

Shedding new light on the actors, infrastructures, and events that shaped the development of literary and cultural theory

While theory aspires by its very nature to timeless validity, the ascendency of particular intellectual paradigms at specific historical moments depends on a complex assemblage of institutional, historical, political, material, and medial factors. Theory as Event: Humanistic Knowledge Production in Germany Since 1968 reconsiders the so-called age of theory as it took shape in the German-speaking world after 1968. In invoking the term “event,” this volume draws attention to the myriad incidents and accidents that enable the creation, diffusion, and canonization of humanistic knowledge, from public controversies and debates to the circulation of various forms of print media.

By conceptualizing theory as an event, the volume also sheds new light on the quotidian, praxeological forms of knowledge production—inconspicuous but no less important acts of research, teaching, and even administration that have shaped the intellectual landscape of the humanities, from visiting professorships and habilitation defenses to the founding of new working groups. In shifting attention from the explication of individual works to these seemingly paratextual phenomena, the contributors to this collection not only offer a fresh perspective on key moments in German intellectual history; they also model a new approach to the history of ideas.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

MATT ERLIN is a professor of German and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis.

ANDRÉ FISCHER is an associate professor of German and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis.

REVIEWS

“With an expert lineup of contributors, Theory as Event fills a necessary niche in the scholarship and stands to be a crucial contribution to the history of theory.” —Leif Weatherby, New York University

“Theory as Event offers a fresh perspective on the intellectual history of theory in German-speaking lands since the 1960s. Its focus on the contexts in which theory is produced, circulated, and practiced connects the volume to broader debates about knowledge production within and beyond academic institutions.” —Manuela Achilles, The University of Virginia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Theory as Event

Part I. Revisions of Critical Theory

1. Paul Fleming: “1969: Adorno and Davis, Theory and Praxis, Resignation and Liberation”

2. André Fischer: “From Bielefeld with Love: Luhmann on Adorno’s Chair in 1968/69”

3. Philipp Felsch: “The Thermidor of Jürgen Habermas”

4. Richard Langston: “Wall Theory: Oskar Negt on Marxism’s Crises in Times of Revolution”

Part II. Mediations of Postmodernism

5. Christine Weder: “Historicizing Theory as ‘Eventization’: On the Birth of Postmodernism out of the Zürcher Literaturstreit, Or Fiedler’s Case Revisited”

6. Matt Erlin: “Postmodernism as German Media Event”

7. Arne Höcker: “SPEX 1989-1993: German Issues”

8. Lilla Balint: “From Rainald Goetz’s Diskurs to Kathrin Röggla’s Betrieb: A Trajectory of the Poetikvorlesung”

Part III. Theory as Practice

9. Tiffany N. Florvil: “Rethinking ‘Quotidian Intellectualism’”

10. Claudia Liebrand: “Habilitation as Event in the History of the Humanities: Kittler’s Habilitation Defense and the Emergence of a New Discipline”

11. Karena Weduwen: “Theory as Team Effort: The Reforms of the NIKOL Working Group as an Event in the History of Theory”

12. Kirk Wetters: “The Prehistory of the Edited Collection: The Theory Show, Münster 1962”

Acknowledgments

List of Contributors

Index