/ Research, Doctorate/PhD, People
Lea Liese's "Mediologie der Anekdote" published
In her dissertation, "Mediology of the Anecdote," written as part of the Doctoral Program in Literary Studies, alumna Dr. Lea Liese examines the anecdotal as a mode of writing and storytelling.
Anecdotal storytelling took on a fundamental role compared to the novel as the central genre of early Romanticism in the politically tense (post-)Napoleonic phase. What is meant here is not (only) the genre of the anecdote, but the anecdotal as a mode of writing and narration, which is used in a variety of ways and above all also in contexts that are not genuinely literary: in the newspaper context as news stories and rumors; in the social context as jokes, gossip, and in the literary context embedded in longer narratives. Narrative acquires political relevance in the production of perceived rather than factual truths, in (claimed) community consolidation in parallel exclusionary practices, and in media bonding of listeners or readers. The anecdotal functions not only as a special medium of political content, but at the same time as a descriptive dispositif of a narratively constituted community. Against this background, the work is dedicated to the political transitional period between revolution and restoration, in which questions about political community formation—and about what is to be excluded from it—become particularly virulent.
Lea Liese: Mediology of the Anecdote. Political Narrative between Romanticism and Restoration (Kleist, Arnim, Brentano, Müller). Volume 7 of the series Minima
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111017464
356 pages, ISBN: 9783111017167, De Gruyter, 2023