Academic literature on the topic 'Skepticism in literature – Germany – 17th century'

The article discusses the miscellanies of Erasmus Francisci, one of the most prominent and commercially successful authors of “curious” literature in late 17th century Germany. In particular, it traces the two mutual mechanisms or principles that guide his mediating of knowledge: ‘Unterhaltung’ and conversation. Both contributed to the functionality of Francisci’s textual collections that edited and popularized learned knowledge to a wider audience.

“Fear of Popish Leagues” weaves together various threads across the Atlantic from Scotland to Mexico and from Germany to the Caribbean to explore the makeshift diplomacy of Massachusetts Puritans and the Catholics from Acadia across confessional boundaries in the frontier environment of mid-Seventeenth Century America and in the context of civil wars in Europe.

The relevance to study the representations of ageing is conditioned by the necessity to understand the variety between generations, differences in age psychological attitudes and increased life expectancy, in particular in European countries. All this is reflected in fiction. The aim of this work is to outline the main features of artistic representations (indirect, «secondary» prototypes and images) of ageing (old age) in German-language literature of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, especially during modernism, postmodernism and the formation of modern society. The twentieth century in the literature is characterized by the development of such directions as modernism and postmodernism. The last one was originated as an ideological signpost associated with a certain unity of philosophical, theoretical, and methodological approaches. The concept of a human in these theories was marked by skepticism on the world caused by The First and The Second World Wars, sarcasm, irony, despair and hopelessness about the absurdity of the world. In the hieratic works of the twentieth-century German-language literature, representations of old age and gerontological motives were very rarely central. Therefore, in social, physical and psychological dimensions, the ageing process has become richer over time. Artistic representations of the elderly were mostly stereotyped. Since the early twentieth century the problem of depicting the elderly has acquired existential sense, postmodern view on human life, the search for human sense of life, human loneliness in society, the role of an individual in the periods before, during and after the two World Wars.

The magic lantern as a projection technique, which has existed in Europe since the 17th century (at the latest), and phantasmagoria as a large-scale magic lantern occupy a prominent place in the world history of visual culture. As they spread across the world, these technologies encountered written cultures and produced fantastic literature—phantasmagorical literature, so to speak. This article analyzes phantasmagorical literature written or published circa 1827 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) of Germany, (SIN Chaha, also called [SIN Wi], 1769–18452 of Korea, and (KYOKUTEI Bakin, 1767–1848) of Japan. This is a demonstration of a novel approach to comparative literature, which compares literary works in the light of global technological history, and this is an attempt to give an insight into the world history of visual culture from the perspective of 1827.

AbstractWhat are the similarities and the differences of icons from the same workshop depicting the same subject? An important portable icon with the representation of the Dormition of the Virgin, hitherto unknown, preserved today in the Art Collection of the University of Göttingen, helps answering this question. The studydeals with the fascinating journey of this icon from Venetian-dominated Crete in the 15th century to Germany of the 18th century. Furthermore, this paper shows that the icon of Göttingen belongs to a group of a numerous icons that they all derive from the same icon-workshop of the renowned Cretan painters Andreas and Nikolaos Ritzos in Candia. Finally, it turned out that this icon was also the inspiration for Cretan painters of the 17th CE such as Emmanuel Lambardos and Viktor.

Lombardy poplar is a tree with a distinctive cypress shape, which grows very fast and has little soil requirements. The species probably originated at the turn of the 17th and 18th century in Lombardy, where it spread via France and Germany, arriving at the territory of the Crown in the second half of the 18th century. However, it was only in the 19th century that its popularity reached its peak. The Lombardy poplar was being planted as a popular avenue plant. It was also an important part of the park complexes designed in a sentimental landscape style inspired by the work of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The article analyses the phenomenon of the popularity of poplar trees on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland in the context of the then literary and philosophical programme of the garden, whose two key sources are to be found in Arcadian literature – J. Milton's Paradise Lost, J. J. Rousseau's works such as New Heloise or Jacques Dellille's Gardens.

AbstractBetween Erich Auerbach and Walter Benjamin, there existed a remarkable friendship, which on the one hand manifested itself as an unobtrusive disputation, and yet which on the other hand could be considered an unintended collaboration toward an old-new ideal of philology. Auerbach claims that with the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Western European literature reached the climax of the figuralism that Auerbach, if belatedly, wants to bring to the fore. Benjamin, in contrast, finds energy for the revolution in the surrealistic love that traces back not to Dante, but to the Provençal poetry which Auerbach regards merely as preliminary to Danteʼs literary achievement. In his The Origin of German Tragic Drama, Benjamin highlights the concept of creatureliness, whose significance for his philosophy of history is no less than that of justice. Auerbach, for his part, does not find its expression in the Germany of the 17th century, but in the France of the 16th century, namely in the work of Michel de Montaigne. However, Montaigneʼs creatureliness is rooted in sermo humilis, which is best embodied in the story of Peter who denied his Lord Jesus Christ three times. By contrast, German creatureliness detects its dissolution in the idea of natural theatre that Benjamin locates in the work of Franz Kafka. Sermo humilis is the perfection of figuralism, whereas the idea of natural theatre means reversal of allegory. The perfected figuralism and the reversed allegory cooperate in the idea of the philology of instead (Philologie des Stattdessen), whose task it is to make bygone the futility of worldly things.

Heart-shaped brooches from modern timesDress accessories from modern times are only sparsely described in the Danish literature on the costume practices of the peasant population. The recent widespread use of metal detectors has yielded many finds which demonstrate that these dress accessories were found all across Denmark. Some types stand out as being particularly recognisable, and one of these comprises heart-shaped brooches typically decorated with a crown and birds. This article is based on ten such brooches in the collection of the Museums of Southwest Jutland, nine of which were found in the soil (fig. 1), but these will be comparable with brooches in many other museum collections across Denmark (fig. 7).Despite the fact that these ornaments have not left any particular traces in written or pictorial sources, they were very common. They were widespread across the entire country, even though the extant Danish literature on the subject is linked to particular geographical areas (fig. 6).The ornament type itself has a long history, and the Danish term særkespænde – shift brooch – refers to an original use in fastening the neck slit of a shift, the function originally performed by these brooches in the costumes of the High Middle Ages, (fig. 2).The heart as a motif on ring brooches and other ornaments is rooted in the Middle Ages and the Catholic symbolism, where the heart can symbolise both spiritual and worldly love, is associated with the worship of Christ (fig. 3).It is difficult to find a link between these medieval heart-shaped ring brooches and the heart-shaped brooches of post-Medieval times. The earliest dated Danish example is the silver brooch in the Horsens hoard dating from the middle of the 17th century (fig. 8), but there are no secure written or pictorial sources referring to such early use of these brooches in Denmark. Conversely, there are 17th century parallels in the published material from other countries (fig. 4).The brooches were used as lover’s gifts in Northern Germany, Norway and Sweden and occur in numerous variations and with various kinds of pendants and decoration, but always with the heart as the central motif (figs. 4 and 5). The brooches possibly had an original function innermost in the clothing as shift brooches, but at some time in the 18th – 19th century they began to be worn visibly as ornaments on the chest together with a scarf. Concurrent with this, they developed to become larger and more showy, as they were now worn where they could be seen (figs. 9, 10 and 11).The brooches could perhaps have had other functions and there are great differences in the size and quality of the examples that have been found and/or published. There are some reports that heart-shaped brooches were used in connection with children’s clothing/head attire in Norway.There were brooches for every taste, extravagant or simple, and some examples were intended for practical use, whereas others were exclusively for decoration. There was also something for every purse – some people could afford finer lover’s gifts than others. Mette Højmark SøvsøSydvestjyske Museer

The historical attire of women from the Lithuania Minor (Klaipėda Region) has a characteristic practical detail: a textile pocket tied at the waist, which functionally corresponds to the modern handbag or pocket. Such textile pockets are called delmonai (pl.) and are usually decorated with colorful ornaments. The purpose of this article is introducing the prototypes of the ornamental motifs in terms of intercultural comparison, employing the visual materials collected by the author and historically formed intercultural contacts. While introducing her hypothesis of possible long-term influences, the author presents décor samples from identical or related textile pockets (from the 17th century until the middle of the 20th century), discussing the possibilities of their finding way to the Lithuania Minor. Researching the change occurring in the décor motifs, the author employs comparative analysis of the traditional (from the beginning of the 19th century until 1930s) and modern (from the beginning of the 21st century) textile pockets, still used as part of the national costume of the Lithuania Minor. The origins of several decorative motifs, e.g. the wreath, the crowned musical instrument, and the flower bouquet, are analyzed in more detail. The vegetal ornaments predominate in the décor of the textile pockets from the Lithuania Minor, including blossoms, branches, bouquets, leafs, wreaths and stylized trees. Certain modes of representation have been appropriated by the folk art from professional art or textiles. The most important centers of high fashion emerging in France, Italy, and Germany, exercised certain impact on tendencies occurring in the folk handicraft. Examples of textile pockets worn by the nobility were widely promoted by the periodicals. The surviving samples of embroidery patterns indicate one of the possible sources for the textile pockets’ décor in the Lithuania Minor: namely, the printed sheets with ornamental patterns, used by the nobility and lower social classes alike. Another likely source would be functionally similar needlework by women from the neighboring countries, since textile pockets make part of the national costume there as well. Sea trade created favorable conditions for commercial and cultural interchange between neighbors. The motif of wreath, rather frequently used in the Lithuania Minor, and the occasional motif of the flower bouquet also occur on textile pockets from Pomerania (the border region between Poland and Germany). Ornamentation of the pockets from Bavaria (in Germany) is also rather close in character to the décor of the Lithuania Minor. Such congruities may be determined by several reasons. Firstly, the producers of these textile works could have had interconnections (after the onslaught of devastating plague in Europe, numerous people from Salzburg moved to the fertile but rather wasted out territories of the Lithuania Minor). Secondly, the producers could have used the same original pattern, e.g. the printed sheet. However, although the mutual influence in the needlework décor of the neighboring countries determined by their economic and cultural connections is obvious, the décor of the textile pockets from the Lithuania Minor stands out in terms of its peculiar features (particular colors, modes of décor, etc.).In terms of spreading the regional ethnic culture, the problem of preserving the regional character of the folk art acquires special significance. Although separate parts of the national costumes inevitably change as result of the technical innovations increasingly applied to their production, these costumes should still remain recognizable as a continuation of the folk attire characteristic to the particular region. The patterns of décor used while making the textile pockets nowadays follow to some extent the traditional motifs of floral compositions. Although individual authors tend to create their original compositions, the majority of the textile pockets produced as part of the national costume of the Lithuania Minor still are easily recognizable as belonging to this particular region. The ornamental motifs are not especially distanced from the original ones as well, with embroidered flower bouquets and wreaths still making the majority. However, the motifs of the bouquet placed in a bag and the crowned musical instrument have lost their popularity. Rather than just making part of the national costume of the Lithuania Minor, the textile pockets increasingly appear as part of the modern clothing characterizing its regional peculiarity.

Frantsev Vladimir Andreevich (April 4 (16), 1867 – March 19, 1942) – a Russian Slavicist, who authored more than 300 works on Slavic studies. He graduated from a Warsaw grammar school, then studied in the Imperial Warsaw University. In 1893–1895, V. Frantsev made several journeys abroad with the academic pupose. In 1895, he began to prepare for the master’s degree. In 1897, he went abroad and spent three years there. In 1899, V.A. Frantsev made a trip to Ugrian Rus, after which published an article “Review of the most important studies of Ugric Rus” in the Russian Philological Bulletin (1901, Nr. 1–2) in Warsaw. During his trip, V.A. Frantsev met and subsequently maintained contacts with prominent figures in the revival of Ugrian Rus. In 1899, he became Associate Professor of the Department of the History of Slavic Dialects and Literatures of the Imperial Warsaw University, in 1903 – an extraordinary professor, in 1907 – an ordinary professor. In 1900–1921, V.A. Frantsev lectured at the University of Warsaw, which in 1915 moved to Rostov-on-Don in connection with WWI. Teaching actively at the University, he devoted his free time to archival studies, working mainly in the Slavic lands of Austria-Hungary, where he went “for summer vacations” from 1901 to 1914. Sometimes he continued his work during the winter vacations and Easter holidays, as in 1906/07 and in 1907/08, when the university did not function due to student unrest. V.A. Frantsev reported to the “Society of History, Philology and Law” at the University of Warsaw, of which he was an active participant. In 1902–1907, Frantsev published almost all of his major works (except P.Y. Shafarik’s correspondence, published much later). Among them were his master’s thesis “An Essay on the History of the Czech Renaissance” (Warsaw, 1902), doctoral dissertation “Polish Slavic Studies in the late 18th and first quarter of the 19th century” (Prague, 1906), “Czech dramatic works of the 16th – 17th centuries” (Warsaw, 1903), etc. In 1909, during heated discussions on the future structure of Chełm-Podlasie Rus, he published “Maps of the Russian and Orthodox population of Chełm Rus with statistical tables”. In 1913, V.A. Frantsev became a member of the Czech Royal Society of Sciences. Since 1915, he was a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in the Department of Russian Language and Literature. He did not accept the October Revolution, yet never publicly opposed the new government. At the end of 1919, he received an offer from the Council of Professors of the Prague Charles University (Czechoslovakia) to head the Russian branch of the Slavic Seminar. In Czechoslovakia, he became a professor at Charles University. In 1927, he took Czechoslovak citizenship. V.A. Frantsev’s life was associated with the Russian emigration. He was a full member and chairman of the Russian Institute, as well as chairman of the “Russian Academic Group in Czechoslovakia”, deputy chairman of the “Union of Russian Academic Organizations Abroad”, a member of the Commission for the Study of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus. In 1924, the Uzhhorod “A. Dukhnovich Cultural and Educational Society” republished V.A. Frantsev’s From the Renaissance Era of Ugric Rus under the title On the Question of the Literary Language of Subcarpathian Rus and a brief From the History of Writing in Subcarpathian Rus (1929). In 1930, The Carpathian Collection was published in Uzhhorod, with Frantsev “From the history of the struggle for the Russian literary language in Subcarpathian Rus” in the preface. He spent his last years in Czechoslovakia occupied by Nazi Germany. V.A. Frantsev died on March 19, 1942, a few days before his 75th birthday. He is buried in the Olshansk cemetery in Prague.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Cincinnati, 2009.
Advisor: Richard Schade. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Aug. 12, 2009). Includes abstract. Keywords: Early Modern Germany; Paul Gerhardt; Apocalypticism; Protestant Hymns; Revelations; 17th Century; Thirty Years' War; Poetry; Protestantism. Includes bibliographical references.

Defence date: 12 October 1998
Examining board: Prof. Dr. Daniel Roche (Paris I - supervisor) ; Prof. Dr. Laurence Fontaine (IUE) ; Prof. Dr. Geroges D. Benrekassa (Paris VII) ; Dr. Gianfranco Bonola (Bologna)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

This dissertation focuses on the emergence of self-awareness in women of the early 17th century as exemplified by Sibylle Schwarz (1621-1638), a native of Greifswald in North Germany. It analyses the feminist components of her work. Her poetic production, preserved in the anthology Deutsche Poetische Gedichte (1650), consists of 105 poems, four prose introductions and three letters. It is the output of a writer whose short life of 17 years plays itself out against the backdrop of a century shattered by the Thirty Years' War, religious strife, the plague, oppression and social unrest. Topics such as friendship, love, female self-awareness, or the contrasting realities of women and men are the themes through which she explores an androcentric society and establishes herself as an advocate for the acceptance of women as full members of society. With her motto Du solst mich doch nicht unterdrucken ("You shall not suppress me") she insists on her equality as a woman and a writer. The defiance of her "natural" role as a woman expresses itself ambivalently, through observing social conventions while at the same time striving to undermine them. Sibylle Schwarz, unlike any other German bourgeois woman author between 1550 and 1650, has written poetry engaging in social criticism that corroborates and at the same time transcends the inferior status of women within a patriarchal structure. This unique nature of her writings makes them an important milestone in the emergence of female intellectual autonomy. The first two of six major sections state the goals of my research, a survey of the materials used and the methodology to be followed. Part III sets the context of a society in which women were limited to a narrow range of roles. In Part IV the conditions in which women lived, worked, and were brought up, from the institutionalised lack of educational opportunity to social, conventional and legal barriers to their full participation in society are being explored. Part V gives an extensive analysis of Sibylle Schwarz's work, relating it to her personal situation and to the themes already developed, with an accounting of her thoughts and ideas about her culture, her society and her gender. Part VI summarises the work and states its conclusions.

Architectural education, in the past had a grounding in a strict apprentice or pupillage method of training architects. The apprentice was someone who worked or trained under a master that transferred skill through a “hands on” approach. Architecture was regarded as one of the arts and there was no formal training to qualify one as an architect. It was through the acclaimed Vitruvius that the architectural profession was born. Vitruvius had published “Ten Books on Architecture” that led to an attempt to summarize professional knowledge of architecture and in doing so became the first recognizable architect. The architectural profession spread throughout Europe in the mid-16th century and the builder and architect became two distinct characters. Although architecture had become a profession, it wasn’t up until the late 17th century that architecture became an academic pursuit through an institutionalized educational system known as École des Beaux Arts, however the pursuit of a strict academic scholar was not the focus. At the beginning of the 1800’s, The University of Berlin in Germany forged the fundamental research and scholarly pursuit. Architecture, like the professions of medicine, law etc. became a system of academic pursuit where professors concentrated deeply on academics first and professional work second. It is through the lens of history we can decipher how architecture became an academic discipline almost de-voiding it of its vocational nature. In its current standing, various universities place a high emphasis on research output from their academic staff. Presently, architecture schools in South Africa recruit lecturers on their academic profiles, rather than their vocational experience. The approach of which has devalued the input of industry into education. It has been noted that there has been an increase in an academic pursuit rather than a professional one for the lecturers that teach architecture. This research explores the views of academics on architectural education, teaching methods and the importance of practice at South African universities. The authors of this research provide an auto-ethnographic insight into their invaluable experience of being academics at two large Universities in South Africa and concurrently run successful practices. The research makes use of a mixed method approach of secondary data from literature and semi-structured interviews posed to academics. Initial findings reveal that academics are pushing the industry to play a part in the education of architects; however, the extent must be determined. If industry plays a role in the education of architects, what factors are considered and how does this inter-twine with the academic nature of training? What strategies are academics employing to make sure students are vocationally well trained and academically capable? Another important question to ask is what qualities make an academic architect in the 21st century?