good books are clearly part of the wide field of art, and good authors are among the real artists for these people. As always, even in the field of literary art, closer dealing with the topic helps to gain a better understanding of quality.
Kunstplaza we would like to accompany the way to this better understanding, which should mainly be paved with the pleasant activity of ongoing reading -with a small series on the theory of German literature -more with suggestions for thinking than in the way of dry scientific considerations:
What is literature?
The first question that arises here is probably what literature is actually. The literary scholars themselves already have a lot to tell about the classification of the concept of their research: the name itself comes from the Latin Littera, the “letter”. In the plural, the “Litterae” already described documents, written works of science and letters in antiquity.
It can be assumed that the content of these letters was more substantial than a Twitter message, a subsequent sound of this meaning can still be felt in English and French, where the “Man of Letters” or “Homme de Lettres” today refers to the literary and active people.
A little earlier, the “Man of Letters” simply the learned man, because until the 18th century one spoke of the res publica litteraria (literary), the “Republic of the scholars”, an expression that included the entire international science company, in English the “Republic of Letters”.
This Res Publica Literaria included all scientifically published ones who were in lively exchange by letter, the only medium available at the time. With which we would be back with the Litterae, the scholarly letters that could be written from everyone at the time without reputation who knew a lot - at that time teachers and learners lived in a republic of the equalists who were delimited from the usual form of government of the standing monarchy through their subject.
This elite, limited to people with high education, Res Publica Literaria slowly dissolved when printed works were increasingly widespread. The general availability quickly put an end to the restriction to scholar content, with the content the importance of the term literature also changed fundamentally.
The subsequent video should offer an introduction to the concept of genre and provide a first overview of the concept of literature:
Why do we need literature?
How long has literature been around? Why do we need you? And what prompted people to write literary texts? The following video from alpha learns to the bottom of these questions.
Literary and non-literary texts
What are literary texts and what distinguishes them from non-literary texts? Another video contribution by Alpha provides answers: Learning:
How the literature became literature
What would have to be reported here would actually be a story of the spread of the art of book printer , which from the 15th century was at the clock for the progression of civilization until it was replaced by the audiovisual and digital media. To reproduce the whole triumphal march would be really too comprehensive, the conceptual boundary considered here even has more to do with the breaks in this triumphal march.
Because the printing pressure had to hold out some step backwards, not only the technical development had to accept sensitive setbacks in the numerous wars of the 17th century, but also the content suffered tremendously. The more people who could read the printed works, the more questionable content became the book for sales motivated, and in the 17th century a kind of war literature was created - with products from the worst kind that should distract people from the equally evil presence.
The German variants of this horritory literature have their origins in a German cultural asset, namely the folk writings, since the Middle Ages, which were handed down as popular legends, fairytale tails and legends and romantic adventures from generation to generation.
These persons worth preserving, mining songs and knight seals had so far been handed down in the bite -sized rhyme form, in the books they now received their popular prospectus, which enabled printed distribution.
Johann Gottfried von Herder and Joseph Görres invented the term folk book for this low market of early printing, which was neither united by specific substances nor by uniform origin, only in the lurid design these folk books were similar. However, their importance for the redesign of the concept of literature was not low - in terms of quality, they represented the greatest possible contrast to the earlier content of “literature”.
Belles Lettres reminded a little more of the previous concept of literature , as the books, which were mainly referred to in France from the 17th century, were called the spiritual space between the scholarly literature and the undemanding folk books.
In Germany, works of this kind were also called Belles Lettres, but subsequently hiked a whole series of names, as the concept of literature learned a whole series of changes.
Around around the middle of the 19th century, a uniform definition of literature emerged: The term literature was now used to all fictional and poetic works of the nation.
The term Belles Lattres was free again and from this point on was used by the Germans for the products of the international market of popular books, and in the 20th century our fiction became fiction .
If this closer concept of literature (which always carried the adjective “beautiful” with himself) now included all the texts in which language in the area of artistic freedom is shaped, there was no longer a name for the original “literary” texts, which are no longer an artistic freedom.
In order to close this gap, a two -part concept of literature was created in the course of the rest of the 19th century, according to the literature in the broadest sense, and literature comprises the “literary works of art” in the narrower sense.
The literature is free - also when looking at it
If you now think you can get an idea of what German literature is actually, this is certainly correct in the basic features. However, you should always be aware that the work of the literary scholars, which is also created as a genre of the term with the redefinition of the term, only begins here: Literature can be broken down in languages and nations, grouped into literary genera, dividing into categories according to the desired addressee and classifying it to level.
distinction in “high” literature and trivial literature is exciting for every reader , because the first is taught and discussed, and the second is read. Almost every reader has been held in his life by an extremely serious, but also extremely boring view of a work to approach this work.
Which is more than a shame, and actually not quite correctly correct, because which works really belong to the high literature and from what aspects these works are discussed is definitely an object that can be freely discussed.
Like the life of their authors, many classic works are extremely exciting and exciting, and the fiction conquers a place in the literature, despite its intention to maintain entertainment.
We therefore invite you to a not extremely scientific but hopefully entertaining walk through German literature, in which classics are newly viewed, favorite fiction of fiction find their place that have already changed life, and some works that the bestseller lists populated for a very long time are disenchanted.
In the treatment of individual works, other specifications mentioned above will be discussed, and these viewing approaches often provide exciting information on the understanding of a work.
If in the end there are only a few new “bookworm” or even a young reader is encouraged to rediscover an old work by acquiring Kunstplaza , this informal type of literature view has already proven itself.
