Culture and Narration

Research Area 2: Culture and Narration

The complex concept of culture can be understood as a dynamic network of narratives. This has been demonstrated by semiotic approaches which highlight the significance of literary and non-literary narratives for a culture’s self-reflection and creation of meaning. Similarly, the significant influence of the (socio-) cultural environment on narrative forms and norms suggests that the relationship between culture and narration can be regarded as one of dynamic interaction. In this context, narration not only functions as a cultural pattern of understanding (Mieke Bal), but also as a structuring pattern of any cultural community which creates and stabilises culture, while simultaneously questioning and destabilising it.

During the last decades, these comprehensive meanings of narrative structures have led to an interdisciplinary discussion about the manifold interrelations between culture and narration. This has covered narrativistic theories of history (Hayden White), the anthropological notion of ‘writing culture’ (James Clifford), concepts of narrative psychology (Jerome Bruner) and feminist, postcolonial, cognitive and cultural narratology as a part of literary studies.

The research area “Culture and Narration” seeks to contribute to the development of an approach to understandings of culture from an interdisciplinary perspective by conceptualising the manifold interrelations between culture and its narratives as a dynamic network. Thus, for instance, the conference „Narrative Networks: Culture and Narration between the Poles of Facts and Fictions“, which took place from 5th-7th December 2008 (Alexander-von-Humboldt-Haus at the JLU Gießen), emerged as an important forum to discuss the value of the network metaphor as an heuristic tool to make sense of the relationship between narratives and their cultural context (see http://cultdoc.uni-giessen.de/wps/pgn/home/KULT_online/tagungsbericht1-2009/).

Not only do the meanings and functions of narratives differ from their particular cultural contexts but also methodological approaches to analyze them. Following Mieke Bal, working in an interdisciplinary framework can only be inspiring if the participants are aware of the roots and original intentions of the terms and concepts they use.

In this sense, the actual focus of the research area is on the critical discussion of several narratological concepts. Some of the main questions concern the development of the concepts and their modification as a way of “travelling” to another scientific context. Methodological questions are dealt with in two ways: on the one hand, we expect a higher attention for the application of concepts in our own PhD-projects; on the other hand, we intend to elaborate a sketch for a narratology, specifically orientated towards the analysis of culture.

Schedule of the Research Area for the Winter Term 2009/10

• Meeting of the RA Thursday, October 22nd, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B29
• Meeting of the RA Thursday, November 26th, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B29
• Meeting of the RA Thursday, December 17th, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B29
• Key Note Lecture Prof. Dr. Wolf Schmid “Ereignishaftigkeit, Interpretation und Kontext”, Wednesday, January 27th, 6 p.m.
• Masterclass Prof. Dr. Wolf Schmid, “Erzählperspektive”, Thursday, January 28th, 2010, 12-4 p.m., Room B25

Schedule of the Research Area for the Summer Term 2009

• Text-Workshop April 23th, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B 29
  Texts by Mieke Bal: Cultural Analysis
• Text-Workshop May 27th, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B 25
  Texts by Mieke Bal: Cultural Analysis
• Text-Workshop June 23th, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B 29
  Texts by Mieke Bal: Cultural Analysis

Schedule of the Research Area for the Winter Term 2008/09

• Text-Workshop October 16th, 2008, 2-5 p.m., Room B 29
  Texts by Axel Rüth and Gerald Echterhoff
• Meeting of the RA November 11th, 2008, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Room B 25
• Conference December 5th-7th, 2008 Alexander-von-Humboldt-Gästehaus, JLU Gießen:
  Narrative Networks: Culture and Narration between the Poles of Facts and Fictions (Link to the Call for papers)
• Text-Workshop January 22nd, 2009, 2-5 p.m., Room B 25
  Texts by Mieke Bal