Julius Böhm, Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies"
Doctoral Research Project

'Theory' with a capital 'T', as it became prominent from the 1960s onwards at the intersection of philosophy, ethnology and literature (Felsch 2016), often focuses on the critique of an all-encompassing reification of art or culture. At the same time, the theory itself appears in the form of a commodity: Its critique is transformed, incorporated into capitalism, and becomes a medium of hegemonic ideology. This, in turn, is linked to the anticipation of incorporation by theory and strategies for opposing it. The aim of the project is to trace the dynamics of critique, commodification and reappropriation strategies in the global, spatial and temporal circulation of theoretical texts. These dynamics can be uncovered not only with regard to the texts as such and their translations, but also, and especially, with regard to the paratexts and parerga (Genette 1989; Derrida 1978) – for theory does not travel as a free-floating idea from one person, one place or one time to the other (Said 1983), but in the form of material media that decisively influence this circulation.

The project examines theoretical texts from the 1960s and 70s from various linguistic, cultural and theoretical fields, and investigates their circulation up to the present day. Three research questions guide the project: 1) How do paratexts influence the transnational and transtemporal circulation of theory? 2) In which ways is theory transformed and capitalistically incorporated in the course of its circulation? 3) Which strategies are pursued to resist the commodification of theory and to establish alternative economies?

Supervisor: Michael Gamper (Freie Universität Berlin/EXC 2020)