Make It Real - Für Einen Strukturalen Realismus
Published by Karin Krauthausen and Stephan Kammer
The relationship between structuralism and realism has remained strangely unobserved in literary studies. The literary production of reality has been neatly separated from the formal impetus, which is concerned with the recognition of ›elementary structures‹ (Claude Lévi-Strauss). This cannot be explained by the structuralism of the 20th century, since the latter proceeded from a ›structuralist activity‹ (Roland Barthes), one that could be found in the sciences and philosophy as well as in the arts. In the view of the structuralists, literature itself – even before explicit theory construction, i.e. already in earlier centuries – is an archive of addressing structures.
In the 20th century, writers became comrades-in-arms in the structuralist undertaking, insofar as they, firstly, inspired the corresponding discourses; secondly, were receptive to these; and, thirdly, expanded them with their own forms of ›writing structures‹ (Hubert Fichte). The literary realisms of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries must – like structuralism itself – be understood via a tension that not only takes place between the formal-abstract structure and the diversity of empiricism or the contingency of history, but also captures and dynamises the concept of structure itself.
The German publication by the Cluster members Stephan Kammer and Karin Krauthausen can be downloaded here or bought in stores starting March 25th.