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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Disintegration Of Modern Culture. Nietzsche And The Information Age, Edgar Landgraf
The Disintegration Of Modern Culture. Nietzsche And The Information Age, Edgar Landgraf
German Faculty Publications
The article revisits Nietzsche’s provocative claim that the Enlightenment’s emphasis on education and open exchange of information promotes rather than prevents the “loss of meaning” from a media studies and systems theoretical perspective. Nietzsche in fact ties what he understands as modern culture’s disintegration to information-processing modes of modern society, that is, as effects of the modern educational system and the mass media (at his time, the printing press). The article argues that while Nietzsche is an astute observer of modernity, his call for a return to a more authentic culture (with its daunting political implications) is indicative of Nietzsche’s …
Romantic Love And The Enlightenment: From Gallantry And Seduction To Authenticity And Self-Validation, Edgar Landgraf
Romantic Love And The Enlightenment: From Gallantry And Seduction To Authenticity And Self-Validation, Edgar Landgraf
German Faculty Publications
My comparative analysis of Lessing's Miß Sara Sampson, Sophie von La Roche's Geschichte des Fräulein von Sternheim, and Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werther elicits how the concept of love changes during the Enlightenment period. These literary texts mark the end of the art of gallantry and seduction and introduce a new understanding of love which emphasizes authenticity and self-validation. The texts by Lessing and La Roche struggle directly with intrigue and seduction, which threaten not only the innocence of "father's only daughter," but‑‑because communication itself becomes a suspect and inherently unreliable undertaking‑‑also threatens the very foundation of …