Rupert Gaderer

Vita

Rupert Gaderer studied electrical engineering at the TGM Technologisches Gewerbemuseum at Vienna (1994-1998), German Literature at the University of Vienna (1999-2004) and at the University of Genoa (2002-2003). He received his Ph.D. in German Literature at the University of Vienna with a dissertation on the relations between natural sciences, aesthetics, and literature around 1800 (Poetik der Technik: Elektrizität und Optik bei E.T.A. Hoffmann; Rombach, 2009). He has received grants from the University of Vienna (2002/2003) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2005-2007), was a fellow at the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies (2006-2007), an IFK visiting fellow at the Humboldt-University of Berlin (2007-2008), and a postdoctoral Fellow at the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry (2008-2009). Since 2009 he is a scholar at the Graduate School "Mediale Historiographien" (Weimar, Erfurt, Jena). He has taught German Literature at the University of Vienna, at the Humboldt-University Berlin, and at the University of Erfurt. His research areas include the relations between natural sciences and literature, law and literature, and travel literature on Italy.

ICI-Project

The Science of Electricity: Cultures of Tension in Natural Science, Philosophy, and Literature, 1744-1826
The introductory section of my work looks at the way electric tension entered popular culture during the eighteenth-century in the form of public performances. With the assistance of new devices such as the Leidener jar or the electrostatic generator, experimenters sought to make electrical tension visible to a broader lay audience. The second section concentrates on eighteenth-century electrotherapy and is dedicated to the “medicina electrica.” Leidener jars and electrostatic generators began to be used when medicine emerged as a modern science. The third section analyzes the manner in which metaphors of electrical tension were introduced in the philosophical works of Friedrich Joseph Schelling, Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert, and Johann Wilhelm Ritter, among others around 1800. My research concludes with an analysis of those literary works that exemplify the broader preoccupation with electricity in early modern European culture (i.e. Jean Paul, Novalis, Achim von Arnim, Heinrich von Kleist, Bettine von Arnim, Friedrich Schiller).

BOOK

(1) Poetik der Technik. Elektrizität und Optik bei E.T.A. Hoffmann. Freiburg i.Br.: Rombach 2009. (=Edition Parabasen Bd. 9)

PUBLICATIONS IN BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

(2) J. G. Seume – J. C. Reinhart – C. L. Fernow: Rom, Blicke. In: Johann Gottfried Seume – „Der Mann selbst“ und seine „Hyperkritiker“. Vorträge der Colloquien zu Johann Gottfried Seume in Leipzig und Catania 2002, 2. verbesserte Auflage, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2005, S. 243-260.

(3) Die Brille im Text. Myopisches Augenpaar und Hoffmannsches Augenglas im „Spaziergang“ und in den Briefen Johann Gottfried Seumes. In: Obolen. Mitteilungen der Johann-Gottfried-Seume-Gesellschaft, 6. Jahrgang (2005), Nr. 1, S. 7-15.

(4) Liebe im Zeitalter der Elektrizität. E.T.A. Hoffmanns Homines electrificati. In: Liebe: Diskurse und Praktiken. Hg. v. Reinhard Sieder, Franz. X. Eder u. Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat. Wien u. a.: StudienVerlag 2007, S. 43-61. (= ÖZG, 18. Jg., H. 3)

(5) Aufgeladen · Elektrisierende Frauen in der Literatur um 1800. In: Bildforschung und Geschlechterkonstruktionen. Hg. v. Gabriele Werner, Anna Schiller u. Maria Pimminger. Wien: Rema 2007, S. 36-45.

(6) „[…] auf einer neuen Wanderung begriffen“. Literarisierte Raumkonzeptionen in Johann Gottfried Seumes Spaziergang nach Syrakus und Mein Sommer 1805. In: In Polen, Palermo und St. Petersburg. Vorträge der Colloquien zu Johann Gottfried Seume in Grimma, Riga und Tartu 2003 und 2005. Hg. v. Jörg Drews. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2008, S. 115-134.

(7) „Von dem Wiener Theaterwesen kann ich Dir nicht viel Erbauliches sagen.“ Johann Gottfried Seumes Wienaufenthalt 1801/1802. In: In Polen, Palermo und St. Petersburg. Vorträge der Colloquien zu Johann Gottfried Seume in Grimma, Riga und Tartu 2003 und 2005. Hg. v. Jörg Drews. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2008, S. 63-70.

(8) Geisterzitationen um 1800 - Heimliche Technologien des Unheimlichen. In: Xing. Ein Kulturmagazin. H. 12 (2009), S. 28-31.

(9) Schriftgeschichte als (Miss)verständnis: Bild · Hieroglyphe · Buchstabe · Emblem · Isotype. In: Goofy History. Fehler machen Geschichte. Hg. v. Marion Herz, Alexander Klose, Isabel Kranz u. Jan Philip Müller. Wien u.a.: Böhlau 2009, S. 58-69. (Gem. mit L. Morenz)

(10) Phantasmagorische Experimente. Rezeption, Literarisierung und Poetik bei E.T.A. Hoffmann. In: "Wir sind Experimente: wollen wir es auch sein!" Experiment und Literatur 1790-1890. Hg. v. Michael Gamper und Martina Wernli. Göttingen: Wallstein 2010, S. 223-240.

(11) E.T.A. Hoffmanns Grabstein. Ägypten am Kirchhof vor dem Halleschen Tor. In: Isched. Journal des Ägypten Forum Berlin. H. 1 (2010). (Gem. mit L. Morenz) (to be published)

COOPERATION

(12) Mitarbeit an dem Buch „Die Nestbeschmutzerin. Jelinek & Österreich“. Hg. v. Pia Janke. Salzburg u.a.: Jung und Jung 2002.

REVIEWS AND CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

(13) Review: Peter Handke: Don Juan (erzählt von ihm selbst). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2004. In: thegap, H. 56 (2004), S. 67.

(14) Review: Michael Cowan und Kai Marcel Sicks (Hg.): Leibhaftige Moderne. Körper in Kunst und Massenmedien 1918 bis 1933. Bielefeld: transcript 2005. In: Transcript/KörperKulturen, 12. 02. 2006, http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts288/ts288for.htm

(15) Conference proceeding: Vor-Raum. Kommunizierende Räume. Graduiertenkolloquium an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. In: Köpfe. Jahresbericht der Stipendienstelle und Preise der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (2006), S. 58 f.

(16) Conference proceeding: Goofy History – Über unbeholfene Geschichte. Tagung des Graduiertenkollegs „Mediale Historiographien“ der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Universität Erfurt, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. 11. – 13. Oktober 2007. In: H-Soz-u-Kult, 25.02.2008, http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=1900

DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Science of Electricity: Cultures of Tension in Natural Science, Philosophy, and Literature, 1744-1826

Recent scholarship within the fields of literature, cultural studies, and media studies have focused on the epistemological cross-currents between the natural sciences, literature, philosophy, and aesthetics. However, despite this new attention, the relationship between the science of electricity in the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, on the one hand, and literature, aesthetics, and philosophy on the other, still remains largely uncharted territory. My project focuses on exchange processes between these four disciplines.

I. The introductory section of my work looks at the way electric tension entered popular culture during the eighteenth-century in the form of public performances. With the assistance of new devices such as the Leidener jar or the electrostatic generator, experimenters sought to make electrical tension visible to a broader lay audience. New electro-technical devices used in the demonstration of advancements in electricity were crucial for clarifying concepts that  had previously only been understood in an abstract manner. Scientists would demonstrate the properties of electricity, with experiments that could be produced not only through inanimate objects, but also through human bodies.

II. The second section concentrates on eighteenth-century electrotherapy and is dedicated to the “medicina electrica.” Leidener jars and electrostatic generators began to be used when medicine emerged as a modern science. With electrical currents, so-called “elektrische Mediziner” attempted to heal their patients of a range of ailments. Of particular importance to my research is the formation of a new and significantly unexplored anthropological model of human life: the homo electrificatus.

III. The third section analyzes the manner in which metaphors of electrical tension were introduced in the philosophical works of Friedrich Joseph Schelling, Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert, and Johann Wilhelm Ritter, among others around 1800. Of interest is the treatment of the epistemological role of electrical tension in relation to cosmological and metaphysical systems in their works.

IV. My research concludes with an analysis of those literary works that exemplify the broader preoccupation with electricity in early modern European culture. Novels, fairy tales, and dramas of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (i.e, . Jean Paul, Novalis, Achim von Arnim, Heinrich von Kleist, Bettine von Arnim, Friedrich Schiller) reflected the manner in which new technologies in electrical science and engineering were staged in the poetics and narrative of contemporary literature.