‚Les servitudes du théâtre d’avant-garde‘ Beitrag Roland Barthes und das Gegenwartstheater Wolfgang Asholt Comparatio, Volume 8 (2016), Issue 2, Page 245 - 257 Dès les années 1950, Barthes a mené une réflexion critique sur le théâtre contemporain français. Sa position s’explique si nous tenons compte de son attitude critique vis-à-vis de l’avant-garde. Selon Barthes, les procédures et les techniques avant-gardistes sont mises au service de la pratique institutionnelle du théâtre contemporain. Ainsi, l’intervention avant-gardiste devient un geste conventionnel et stérile. Dans ce contexte, Barthes découvre dans l’oeuvre et la dramaturgie de Brecht une figure-clé qui peut apporter au théâtre contemporain un moyen de renouvellement. Since the 1950s, Barthes engages in a critical reflection on contemporary French theory. His position can be understood if we take in account his critical attitude towards the avant-garde. According to Barthes, avant-garde dramatic techniques and devices are put to the service of the contemporary institutional theatrical practice. Thus what was originally intended to be an artistic intervention becomes a conventional and sterile gesture. In this context, Brecht becomes a key figure, in his work and dramaturgy Barthes discovers a means to renew contemporary theatre.
Nach der „République mondiale des Lettres“. Gibt es noch eine französischsprachige Weltliteratur? Beitrag Wolfgang Asholt Comparatio, Volume 7 (2015), Issue 2, Page 199 - 215 Since the publication of ‘La République mondiale des lettres’ by Pascale Casanova (The World Republic of Letters) in 1999, questions such as ‘What is world literature?’ (Damrosch), or ‘Where is World literature?’ (Pradeau/Samoyault) have been raised. These questions indicate that the notion has lost its former evidence in the wake of the “Philology of World literature” (1952) of Erich Auerbach. The article problematizes this conception, discusses different models (such as margins–centre, circulation– movement, decentralization–dehierarchization), and is especially dedicated to French literature, which, in the course of the twentieth century has not only lost its age-long status of the “international capital of letters”, but has also undergone significant transformations due to postcolonial studies and gender studies. Two contemporary examples, (Olivier Rolin: The invention of the world, 1993 and Assia Djebar: The Nights of Strasbourg, 1997) illustrate the possibilities and the limits of a “world literature in French”. After examining the importance and the unbalance related to translations and to the current position of French contemporary literature in the Anglophone world, the article finally appeals to the contemporary French Studies to engage in discussions about world literature in order to prevent literature in the French language from becoming a minor literature (“kleine Literatur” in the sense of Kafka, Deleuze/ Guattari).
Theatertechniken und Wirklichkeitsmodellierung: zur Konfiguration von Fiktion, Simulation und Präsenzerleben Kirsten Dickhaut, Michael Resch