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Colloque : Circulation internationale des idées en sciences sociales européennes

2.07 - Intercultural German Studies as a Part of Cultural Studies in Germany

Auteur(s) : Aglaia Blioumi

International talks of recent decades on the opening of Literatures towards cultural studies began in Germany in the field of German Language Teaching. The attempt made by Alois Wierlacher establish an independent sector of German Studies, i.e., a broadened Philology, where the objectives of research are both literary and generally pedagogic and cultural, led in the establishment of an independent Department, Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Interkulturelle Germanistik), in the University of Bayreth, in 1987. The main methodological contribution of this field to cultural studies is ‘Intercultural Hermeneutics’. ‘Intercultural Hermeneutics’ refers to the reception of literature by receivers of both German and non-German origin. Its fundamental principle is the view that an interpretation is always determined in terms of culture. Contrary to the traditional Hermeneutics of Gadamer, according to whom reception is based on the “Fusion of Horizons” (Horizontverschmelzung) of the author or the work and the reader, thus, on the fusion of the One and the Other, in ‘Intercultural Hermeneutics’, the process of interpretation recognizes and respects the ‘foreign’ element. Despite the significant contribution of Intercultural German Literature to pedagogy and cultural studies, in my opinion, Intercultural German Literature makes use of a quite static concept of culture. The concept of ‘Intercultural’ is perceived only as a comparison of foreign with familiar, and the element of mixture and intercultural identity, which is seen, for example, in children of second-generation immigrants, is here lost. In my opinion, however, the element of intercultural identity is a main feature of the postnational era. Claude Levi-Strauss described cultural studies as “sciences de la diversité”, i.e., sciences of differentiation. Thus, the following question arises: is it, after all, the scientific post-language the one that “cements” the bipolar schema of familiar versus foreign? In this paper, an effort is made to give an answer to this question. Furthermore, the reasons why the concept of intercultural as a mixture of cultural codes can hardly become an analytical and interpretive tool for cultural studies are discussed.

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