Auditory spaces of literature. The sonorous performance of literary work in postwar Germany between 1947 and 1967

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Natalie Binczek
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 323757092

The project is focused on German literature of the post-war period and concentrates on how during the dec-ades between 1947 and 1967 the creative literary process was to a decisive degree based on the develop-ment of a live performance attended by an audience. After 1945 the literary public developed a sonorous scene (Barthes), and the emerging literary networks were dominated by elementary social systems characterized by direct communication between participants (Luhmann), a fact, which is largely disregarded in contemporary research. Literature operated in the post-war decades mainly as a public performance of texts in halls and auditoriums and the performance was organized around the idea of direct and immediate re-sponse of a live audience. The central thesis of the project is therefore the assumption, that a vocal-acroamatic horizon (Riedel) was a decisive influence and thereby supported a Peotology of making oneself heard, thus intricately connecting text production and live response of an audience. Sonority became a regulating idea in the establishment of institutions and locations, where literary discourse was happening. It also shaped the methods and media in which such literary productions developed. The project will analyse theses aspects on the basis of literature studies and source-based case studies and thus construct a historic and systematic tableau. The case studies are to be based on material from the archives, including particular acoustical sources, hitherto not made use of.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants