Landscape

“[…] landscape, not as an object to be seen or a text to be read, but as a process by which social and subjective identities are formed.”
W. J. T. Mitchell

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As with the concept of the body, my main interest in landscape has to do with social and political processes of metaphorization. The notion of a national political landscape, as it developed in the course of the 19th and 20th century, is closely related to the much older metaphor of the body politic. In some respects, it takes over its place. A second interest for landscape stems from clouds and the role they play within the arts and culture at large.

In “Spaces: the sea of plurilingualism”, the third part of Metaphors of Multilingualism. Changing Attitudes towards Language Diversity in Literature, Linguistics and Philosophy (Routledge, New York 2020, p. 165-246) the notion of landscape plays a major role as a multiple spatial metaphor of language.

Publications

I. Books

Politische Landschaften: Zum Verhältnis von Raum und nationaler Identität,  transcript, Bielefeld 2014.

Review: http://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-23499

This book is partially the result of my teaching activity. From 2006 to 2013 I have taught a course at the Comunication Faculty of the Università della Svizzera Italia (Lugano, Switzerland),which was dedicated to the cultural, historical and political relevance of national landscapes in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. From 2006 to 2010 I invited a series of speakers: Albrecht Lehmann, Jon Mathieu, Paola Bozzi and Gerhard Fröhlich (2006), Norbert Fischer, Reto Furter and D. A. Binder (2007), Hansjörg Küster, Johann Stückelberger and Stefan Zimmermann (2008), Georg Kreis, Barbara Piatti and Nicolas Berg (2009), Stefanie Krebs, Amy-Diana Colin and Benjamin Steininger (2010).

II. Articles and Book Chapters

6. Zwischen Berg und Ebene: Zur Entstehung von Vilém Flussers Begriffspaar Dialog/Diskurs – Tra montagna e pianura: come è nata la coppia di concetti dialogo/discorso di Vilém Flusser, in Flusser Studies 28.

5. Landschaften des Exils: Zum Verhältnis von Natur und Migration im Werk Vilém Flussers, in: Intermedialität und Alterität, Migration und Emigration. Tendenzen der deutschsprachigen Literatur, hg. von O. C. Díaz Pérez et al., Tübingen, Stauffenburg 2014, S. 275-287.

4. Skyscapes. O papel das nuvens na formação das paisagens, in: Filosofia e Arquitectura da Paisagem, ed. by Adriana Veríssimo Serrão, Lisboa 2013, p. 117-129.

3. “Luftschaften”. Zur Rolle der Wolken in der Konstitution von Landschaften, in: Landschaft quer denken: Theorie – Bilder – Formationen, ed. by Stefanie Krebs and Manfred Seifert, Leipzig 2012, p. 127-144.

2. Translating Space: On Rivers, Seas, Archipelagos and Straits, in: Flusser Studies 14, November 2012.

1. Trennender Graben und verbindendes Band. Zur topografischen Ambivalenz von Flüssen, in: Die Erzählung der Landschaft, ed. by D. A. Binder, H. Konrad und E. G. Staudinger, Wien 2011, p. 19-33.

III. Conference Presentations

3. Von Bodenlosen und Luftmenschen: Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Landschaft und Identität in Zeiten der Globalisierung, 17.3.2016, Zeppelin Museum , Friedrichshafen.

2. Landschaften des Exils: Zum Verhältnis von Natur und Migration im Werk Vilém Flussers, XIV. Kongress des Lateinamerikanischen Germanistenverbandes (ALEG), Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 6th March 2012.

1. „Luftschaften“. Zur Rolle der Wolken in der Konstitution von Landschaften, Landschaft quer Denken. Theorie – Bilder – Formationen, 17th – 19th September 2009, Tagung des Instituts für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde in Dresden und des interdisziplinären Arbeitskreises Landschaftstheorie (18th September 2009).