Kling, Alexander
Congratulations on passing the viva voce examination on 30 November 2016.
Dissertation topic: "Among wolves. Figurations of civilisation in politics, zoology and literature (1650-1800)."
Fellowship according to the Bayerisches Eliteförderungsgesetz(1 August 2010-31 July 2013).
The dissertation was awarded by the Unterfränkische Gedenkjahrstiftung 2017.
Contact address at the University of Würzburg:
Institute of German Philology / Modern Department
Am Hubland
D-97074 Würzburg
Phone: +49 931 31-85639 (via Mrs Knies)
Room: 4.0.10
First supervisor: Prof. Dr Roland Borgards
Second supervisors:
Prof. Dr Stephan Kraft
Class in the Graduate School: "Philosophy, Languages, Arts"
Doctorate in the Graduate School since WS 2009/2010
Abstract:
My dissertation project is dedicated to a cultural history of the wolf in the period from around 1650 to 1800. The wolf will be analysed in the field of tension between the actual animal and the culturally constructed figure of reflection and examined on the basis of various fields of discourse (political theory, zoology, literature). Thus, the wolf will not only be considered as a metaphor of political theory (for example in Hobbes), as an object of zoological knowledge (for example in Buffon) or as a motif in literary texts, but instead it will be shown that a separation between the actual and imaginary animal cannot be maintained - every view of the actual wolf carries traces of an imaginary charge, and conversely every imagination of the wolf and the wolfish is connected with the actual animal.
With this approach, political theory, zoology and literature are linked in a common field in which various exchange and reciprocal relationships can be recognised. Three sets of questions will guide the investigation of this field: Firstly, what is the connection between the wolf and political forms of rule in the period under investigation, where is the connection between the wolf and political sovereignty? Secondly, how is the boundary between culture and nature negotiated through the wolf, how can the logic of the liminal be visualised through lycology? Thirdly, how does the process of civilisation take shape through the wolf, and where and in what forms does this process manifest itself through the wolf?
Literary texts play a central role in the investigation of these questions. This arises from the consideration that literary texts are capable of negotiating political-zoological constellations, describing the (un)setting of boundaries and shaping the narrative of encounters between humans and animals, particularly through a mode of 'as if'. The literary texts (such as those by Defoe, Gerstenberg, Wezel, Schiller, de Sade) are also analysed with regard to the aforementioned complex of questions. At the same time, the question of what status animals have in literary texts and what interpretative approaches are possible and meaningful will be asked.
My work is located in the research field of Cultural and Literary Animal Studies (CLAS). Methodologically, the work is orientated towards theories of the history of knowledge and post-structuralist theories (Foucault, Derrida, Agamben), especially insofar as these themselves deal with questions about animals. The concepts of political zoology (Vogl, von der Heiden) and theriotopology (Borgards) developed in the German-speaking world should also be taken into account. At the same time, however, the aforementioned approaches in the research field of CLAS must be problematised with regard to anthropocentric perspectives due to their strong focus on language, texts and discourses. The approaches of agency and actor-network theory (Latour, Haraway), which have been developed in recent years and are now widely received, are suitable for this purpose.
