Texte remanié de: Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Würzburg--Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität, 2002. / Bibliogr. p. 291-311.

Diss.--Neuphilologische Fakultät--Universität Heidelberg, 1989.

[pt] Poeta de vanguarda, historiador e teórico da arte, Carl Einstein (1885-1940) foi mediador cultural entre França e Alemanha, cofundador da revista Documents (1929) junto com George Bataille, Michel Leiris, Georges Wildenstein e George-Henri Rivière. Pertenceu ao círculo de Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, conheceu Picasso, Braque, Gris e Léger. Uma compreensão do cubismo para além da pintura, uma história da arte como luta de experiências ópticas, espaços inventados e figurações e a reformulação de conceitos enraizados na tradição alemã são alguns aspectos que caracterizam seu pensamento. Por um lado, um cubismo que não remete à representação do objeto e sim a um processo visual e mental por parte do artista e do observador, no qual o objeto é o resultado desse duplo processo. Por outro, uma escrita engajada o leva a encerrar o Georges Braque (1934) com a frase o mito foi reintegrado ao real, e a poesia se torna o elemento originário da realidade. A reintegração do mito enquanto criação de realidade, e a poiesis, ação que transforma e da sentido ao mundo, são as alternativas introduzidas por Carl Einstein para uma arte, e uma história da arte, que não considere os objetos como reflexo do mundo exterior e sim como criadores do mundo exterior dos homens. O objetivo desta tese é acompanhar e analisar sua relação com a Kunstwissenschaft, assim como as transformações às quais submete os conceitos, para assim apreender a singularidade do seu pensamento. / [en] Avant-garde poet, historian and art theorist, Carl Einstein (1885-1940) was a cultural actor between France and Germany as well as co-founder of Documents (1929), together with George Bataille, Michel Leiris, Georges Wildenstein and George-Henri Riviere. He was part of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s circle and kept friendship with Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger. His understanding of Cubism as a process beyond painting, his approach of art history as the struggle of optical experiences, invented spaces figurations, his reformulation of concepts deeply rooted in the German tradition are some of the aspects that characterize the originality of his thought. On one hand, the Cubist proposal does not imply a representation of the object, but a visual and mental process undergone by both the artist and the observer where the object is the result of this dual process. On the other, an engagement with language drove Einstein to end his Georges Braque (1934) with the phrase myth was reintegrated to the Real, and poetry becomes the originating element of reality. Restoring myth as a means for the creation of reality, and poiesis, an action that transforms and gives sense to the world, are the alternatives introduced by Carl Einstein into an art, and art history, which does not consider objects as reflection of an outside world but as creators of the outer world of men. This dissertation follows and analyzes Einsteins relationship with the discipline known as Kunstwissenschaft and the transformations to which he submitted some of its concepts in order to understand the singularity of his thought.

Thema dieser Dissertation ist die Frage, wie sich Licht und Sehen im Zuge der Elektrifizierung veränderten, und zwar aus Sicht literarischer Erzähltexte, die zwischen 1900 und 1933 publiziert wurden. Ausgangslage der Untersuchung ist erstens die These, dass durch den Einsatz des elektrischen Lichts eine Reihe neuer Wahrnehmungsdispositive entstanden, wo trotz der Lichtstärke elektrischer Leuchtmittel zwielichtige Licht- und prekäre Sichtverhältnisse herrschten. An drei besonders markanten Zwielichtszenarien der ästhetisch-technischen Moderne – Großstadt, Kino und Schützengraben – werden anhand einer breiten Quellenbasis aus Literatur, Technik, Wissenschaft, Philosophie und Ästhetik aufgezeigt, wie die Ausdifferenzierung der lichttechnischen Infrastruktur neue Blickregime und ästhetische Weltanschauungen produzierte, die ihrerseits veränderte Techniken des Sehens evozierten. Eine weitere zentrale These lautet, dass sich angesichts der prekären Licht- und Sichtverhältnisse auch die kulturelle Semantik des Lichts veränderte: die Art und Weise, wie Licht, und damit ebenso die Vorstellungen von Wahrnehmung, Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit, vor- und dargestellt wurden. Die neuen Lichtphänomene erforderten neben aisthetischen (die sinnliche Wahrnehmung betreffende) Anpassungsleistungen auch ästhetische Bewältigungsstrategien: neue Darstellungsweisen und symbolisch-metaphorische Zuschreibungen, die das zeitgenössische Wissen über Licht und Sehen gehörig in Bewegung brachte. Es entstanden virulente neue Korrelationen ‚moderner Wahrnehmung‘ zwischen technisch erzeugtem Zwielicht, epistemischer Irritation und narrativ erzeugter Visualität. Ich hoffe, mit meiner Arbeit neue Perspektiven auf die nach wie vor relevante Frage ‚moderner Wahrnehmung‘ zu werfen, die sich seit der ‚elektrischen Moderne‘ sukzessive als immer ausgeklügelteres Zusammenspiel von (Licht-)technik, aisthesis und Ästhetik neuformiert. / This dissertation focuses on how light(ing) and seeing/ perception changed in the course of electrification, from the perspective of German literature, published between 1900 and 1933. My first claim is, that the use of electric light created a series of new perceptual dispositifs, where dubious light and precarious visual conditions prevailed despite the luminous intensity of electric lighting. Three particularly striking twilight scenarios, that play a significant role in technology and aesthetics in the early 20th century, – namely the City, the Cinema, and the Trenches of WWI – are gripping settings to demonstrate, how disruptive lighting infrastructure produced new scopic regimes and innovative aesthetic perspectives (Weltanschauungen) that changed the techniques of visual perception. Drawing from a broad base of sources from literature, technology, science, philosophy, and aesthetics, I argue that the disruptive lighting technologies did not only change light phenomena, visual conditions and perception, but also transformed the cultural semantics of light substantially. Closely tied to concepts of truth, perception and reality, the rhetoric of light and lighting are dense metaphors and symbols, deeply interconnected with the history of knowledge. The new light phenomena required aisthetic (sensory perception-related) adaptations, as well as aesthetic coping strategies, like new modes of representation and symbolic-metaphorical attributions that troubled contemporary knowledge about light and visuality. My research zooms in on the visual dispositifs of ‘electric modernity’ and thus on the new correlations between technically generated twilight, epistemic irritation, and narrative visuality. By analysing the interplay of lighting and visual technology, aisthesis, and literary aesthetics in early 20th century, I hope to shed new light on the intriguing question of ‘modern perception’ that remains relevant from the beginning of the electric age until now.