Entgrenzte Figuren – bewegte Erinnerungen. Migration im Spannungsfeld von Literatur und Begriff

My paper discusses the controversial relationship between literature and literary studies by using the example of the term ›migration literature‹. It demonstrates in the first part that ›migration literature‹ as a term in literary studies does not expose explications of rational reconstructions of a conceptual content in Harald Fricke’s and Klaus Weimar’s understanding. In its history (Adelson 1991; 2004), ›migration literature‹ goes back to a chain of different terms and definitions as Gastarbeiter- or Ausländerliteratur and reflects strategies of homogenization and exclusion. From the 1980s forward, those terms produce in cultural contexts a semantic field that propagates culture based on a definition of ex negativo (Tafazoli 2019). The first part of my paper describes an outline of influences of homogenization and reductionism on the discourses of migration in literary studies and explains in the second part an asymmetrical relationship between motive on the one hand and terminology on the other. The term ›migration literature‹ seems to dominate this relationship by determination of a source of ›accepted truths‹ related to the life and background – specifically to the place of birth and the origin – of the author (Bay 2017). By prioritization of criteria beyond narrative reality, literary studies led in the 1980s and 1990s discourses on migration on the sidelines of canon of German speaking literature (Weigel 1991; Wilpert 2001). With regard to terminological determination in order to produce interpretative sovereignty (Foucault 1994), my paper exemplifies in the second part that the term ›migration literature‹ collects selected and limited fields of social, historical and political knowledge in perspective adjustment and in order to classify literature beyond aesthetic criteria. By this means, inductive standards (Müller 2010a; 2010b) classify the literary object ›migration‹ ontologically and regardless of factuality of the author’s life on the one hand and fictionality of narrative text on the other. The ontological classification has been used, for example, in contexts that replace the figure of stranger (Fremder) by the figure of migrant and determines the latter as figuration of external space of culture. The replacement suggests a perspective rigidity in the cultural production of knowledge that flows into a terminological classification and claims with the term ›migration literature‹ sovereignty over culture. From this point of view, the author and his work should be located in the external space of canonized literature. The second part of my paper comes to the conclusion that the term ›migration literature‹ has been developed in politicized frames of external-textual ›accepted truths‹ and bases its stability on cultural essentialism and exclusion regardless of heterogenetic appearance (Bhatti 2015). With regard to theories of »literature on the move« (Ette 2001), my paper understands that migration has always formed a considerable part of literary production. Therefore, migration could be understood as a literary motive. This meaning would undermine an ontological understanding of culture. Narrative texts develop poetics of migration and create by figurations of migration a poly-perspectivity in which migration advances to a polysemantic motive. My paper discusses these thoughts in the context of cultural memory in the third part and understands varied and multifaceted constructions of cultural memory on all sides of cultural borders. This part confronts the asymmetrical relationship between motive and terminology with discussions on migration as narrative of cultural memory that belongs to cultural majority and minority equally, at the same time and in the same space. Based on this understanding, my paper argues that migration as a motive construct shapes and leads discourses of culture under the conditions of global re-formation. The shift of the perspective from conceptual classification to close-readings of literary constructions should lead us to considerations about the openness of the narrative in distinction to terminological unity and should also initiate a paradigm shift in locating migration in discourses of literary studies. The theoretical considerations will be exemplified in the fourth section by Mohammad Hossein Allafis Frankfurter Trilogie that is a collection of the novels Die Nächte am Main (1998), Die letzte Nacht mit Gabriela (2000) and Gabriela findet einen Stapel Papier (2012). The fourth part of my paper examines in Frankfurter Trilogie a reading that integrates migration as a motive into the discourse of cultural memory of global challenges. Using the example of the Trilogie, this part of my paper demonstrates that discussions on migration in the context of cultural memory could initiate a shift in the perspective of reception from conceptual homogenization to narrative openness. The shift of perspective shows that literature translates the questions of community into the aesthetic perception of the form of culture and civilization in which the community actually articulates and appears itself and shows also that reading of migration as a statement about one nation has lost its explanatory power. The last part of my paper resumes my thoughts and takes position in the current fields of research in literary studies.

Alpha oscillations are involved in localizing touch on hand-held tools

The sense of touch is not restricted to the body but can also extend to external objects. When we use a hand-held tool to contact an object, we feel the touch on the tool and not in the hand holding the tool. The ability to perceive touch on a tool actually extends along its entire surface, allowing the user to accurately localize where it is touched similarly as they would on their body. While the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to localize touch on the body have been largely investigated, those allowing to localize touch on a tool are still unknown. We aimed to fill this gap by recording the EEG signal of participants while they localized tactile stimuli on a hand-held rod. We focused on oscillatory activity in the alpha (7-14 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) range, as they have been previously linked to distinct spatial codes used to localize touch on the body. Beta activity reflects the mapping of touch in skin-based coordinates, whereas alpha activity reflects the mapping of touch in external space. We found that alpha activity was solely modulated by the location of tactile stimuli applied on a hand-held rod. Source reconstruction suggested that this alpha power modulation was localized in a network of fronto-parietal regions previously implicated in higher-order tactile and spatial processing. These findings are the first to implicate alpha oscillations in tool-extended sensing and suggest an important role for processing touch in external space when localizing touch on a tool.

Description of Dressed-Photon Dynamics and Extraction Process

Several interesting physical phenomena and industrial applications explained by the dressed photon have been reported in recent years. These require a novel concept in an off-shell science that deviates from the conventional optics, satisfying energy and momentum conservation laws. In this paper, starting from an original model that captures dressed-photon characteristics phenomenologically, the dynamics of the dressed photon in a nanomatter system and the mechanism for extracting internal degrees of freedom of the dressed photon to an external space have been examined by theoretical and numerical approaches. Our proposal is that basis states of the dressed photon can be transformed to the form that reflects the spatial distribution of the dressed-photon steady state in the system, and some of basis states with predetermined spatial distribution can relate to the dissipation components in the external space by means of the renormalization technique. From the results of numerical simulation, it is found that quasi-static states are regarded as the photon with light mass or massless, and the extraction of active states strongly affects the spatial distribution in a new steady state. The concept for extracting dressed-photon energy to an external space will contribute to a detailed understanding of dressed-photon physics and future industrial applications.

Analysis on the Layout Evolution and External Space Characteristics of the Red Gate Palace in Taishan

This article organizes and analyzes the historical evolution as well as the current situation of the Red Gate Palace, and probes into the artistic characteristics of the exterior space of the building. The conclusions are as follows: Relying on the unique forest environment of Mount Tai, the Red Gate Palace forms an impression of negative yin-yang where it is overlooking waters and with hills at the back. The guiding space comprising of the climbing route, the archway, and the Feiyun Pavilion which is built on the crossroad plays the role of guidance and suggestion; forming a complete spatial sequence with rhythm. The courtyard space which constitutes the east and west courtyards, in addition to the Little Taishan Temple is reasonable and ingenious in layout along with rich as well as well-proportioned spaces, and pleasant in scale.

How Interactive Art Installations Can Be Utilized For Practices Of Mourning

This research examines how interactive art installations can facilitate practices of mourning. The paper considers the following questions; 1) How does our relationship with space, time, and art affect how we mourn a deceased loved one? 2) How does space affect the living body when grieving? 3) How does time affect the memory of a departed loved one? 4) How does art therapy as meaning-making benefit the mourning process? The research engages with questions of perception, memory, inner and external space, and the embodied experiences of art. It offers an analysis through a phenomenological and socio-psychological lens of how art can be used to benefit the mourning process. The paper contains case studies examining current art installations and interactive art installations depicting mourning and grief. The paper explores how art and perception create meaning within our sense of self, and how this can benefit the grieving process.

How Interactive Art Installations Can Be Utilized For Practices Of Mourning

This research examines how interactive art installations can facilitate practices of mourning. The paper considers the following questions; 1) How does our relationship with space, time, and art affect how we mourn a deceased loved one? 2) How does space affect the living body when grieving? 3) How does time affect the memory of a departed loved one? 4) How does art therapy as meaning-making benefit the mourning process? The research engages with questions of perception, memory, inner and external space, and the embodied experiences of art. It offers an analysis through a phenomenological and socio-psychological lens of how art can be used to benefit the mourning process. The paper contains case studies examining current art installations and interactive art installations depicting mourning and grief. The paper explores how art and perception create meaning within our sense of self, and how this can benefit the grieving process.

SHOP-WINDOWS IN JAPAN: WESTERN "OMOTE" AND JAPANESE "MA"

The article is devoted to the national specifics of Japanese shop-windows in an urban environment. In this regard, shop-windows are viewed from the point of view of the interaction of internal and external space, and not just as decor. The purpose of the article is to analyze how the traditional Japanese understanding of space was transformed under the influence of the Western lifestyle and the role of facades and shop-windows began to change. At the same time, it is important to understand that the Japanese designers managed to preserve the Japanese designers in shop-windows design after Westernization. First, according to F. Maki, the traditional Japanese concept of space "oku" ("oku - omote") is considered. Then, its transformation is investigated using the example of the so-called "sign houses" (kamban-kentiku). Then, in search of the national specifics of modern shop windows, the article studies modern shop-windows, and also analyzes the category of modern Japanese aesthetics "intermediate" "ma". The study concluded that the traditional Japanese understanding of space as a reversible void, when the most important thing is located in the depths of the “oku”, faced with the western way of life, is transformed into the model “Japanese oku (depth) - western omote (front side) ". Thus, there are “signage houses” of the kamban-kenchiku, the facade of which is “western”, and the rest with its “oku” is Japanese. In the further transformation, initially "western" shop-windows are also beginning to acquire Japanese characteristics. The most important role in this process is played by the modern category of Japanese aesthetics "ma", although it is closely related to tradition. It can be understood both as a generating void and as a connecting space.

Illusory tactile movement crosses arms and legs and is coded in external space

Humans often misjudge where on the body a touch occurred. Theoretical accounts have ascribed such misperceptions to local interactions in peripheral and primary somatosensory neurons, positing that spatial-perceptual mechanisms adhere to limb boundaries and skin layout. Yet, perception often reflects integration of sensory signals with prior experience. On their trajectories, objects often touch multiple limbs; therefore, body-environment interactions should manifest in perceptual mechanisms that reflect external space. Here, we demonstrate that humans perceived the cutaneous rabbit illusion - the percept of multiple identical stimuli as hopping across the skin - along the Euclidian trajectory between stimuli on two body parts and regularly mislocalized stimuli from one limb to the other. A Bayesian model based on Euclidian, as opposed to anatomical, distance faithfully reproduced key aspects of participants' localization behavior. Our results suggest that prior experience of touch in space critically shapes tactile spatial perception and illusions beyond anatomical organization.