‘La poesía no da para tanto’: lírica y autoficción en Lorenzo García Vega

Este artículo se enfoca en la singular combinación de poesía, ficción y autobiografía que pone en juego la obra reciente de Lorenzo García Vega. A través de una lectura de dicha obra, y en particular de la ‘mala novela’, Devastación del Hotel San Luis (2007), se propone un replanteamiento teórico del concepto de autoficción que se apoya en el análisis lingüístico de los modos de enunciación de Benveniste y en una revisión de la teoría de los géneros literarios de Käte Hamburger. Mi lectura sitúa la cuestión de la autoficción en el conflictivo diálogo de este autor con el grupo Orígenes, y explora el cruce de modos narrativos y líricos de autofiguración en el singular proyecto de García Vega: reescribir la narrativa autobiográfica proustiana a la vez que la poética neobarroca lezamiana.

Dynamics of Constitutional Cultures

Although it has been claimed that we live in an age of constitutionalism, national and transnational constitutions neither appear as uniform models nor as uncontested means of setting the rules of the game in the political, economic, or religious domain. This book aims to convince readers of a cultural perspective on constitutions. Tying in with the research approach of the Käte Hamburger Center “Law as Culture”, the term “constitutional culture” evokes the multidimensional life of a constitution that cannot be restricted to its – though essential – textual normative provisions and authorized interpreters. Grasping the foundational force and societal influence of constitutions by means of cultural theory and analysis also calls for the investigation of narratives, symbols, rituals, materials, and places in which constitutions are framed and reproduced. With this objective in mind, the contributions to this volume, written by lawyers, sociologists, and political scientists, illuminate different dimensions of the cultural manifestation of constitutions as well as contemporary legal, political, and social struggles arising around their shape and range of influence in various regions of the world.

“Formative Exchanges” in Late Antique Eurasia (1): Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism, and Christianity

The article first presents the theoretical, historical, and methodological presuppositions that guided the organization of the first “Formative Exchanges in Late Antique Eurasia” workshop at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg (KHK), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, in 2017. In the second part, the article summarizes the papers presented at this meeting and identifies the emerging questions and results shared by the participants.

Swipe Left to Pray. Analyzing Authority and Transcendence in Prayer Apps

This paper centers on a fairly new phenomenon in digital religion: prayer apps. After an overview of their typical features, the paper will present a number of analytical perspectives on such apps, arguing that investing in theoretical work is needed, particularly in a young research field. Starting points are provided by Heidi Campbell’s four-layer model of religious authority, Michel Foucault’s concept of “technologies of the self,” Birgit Meyer’s understanding of religion as a practice of mediation, and by the conceptualization of the transcendence/immanence distinction developed at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Dynamics of the History of Religions Between Asia and Europe at the Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr-Universät Bochum. With regards to authority, it will be pointed out that prayer apps employ highly different strategies of authorization. These include the evocation of traditional authority, building trust through the use of familiar design language (often borrowed from outside the religious field), and self-imposed strategies aimed at the ‘improvement’ of the individual believer. As for the transcendence/immanence-distinction, it will be argued that it is important to differentiate between prayer apps that have a more auxiliary character, helping users to prepare their offline praying practice, and those apps that allow users to pray directly on their phone – which has significant implications for the understanding of transcendence.

In the Realm of Corona Normativities

This volume shows the results a cultural studies perspective on the pandemic crisis may yield in the light of the law-as-culture paradigm. The diversity of the disciplines practiced at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Law as Culture" as well as the internationality of its fellows and fellow campaigners contribute to directing the normative and legal analysis developed at the Kolleg towards phenomena which at the same time provide us with a unique laboratory for the "condition humaine".