Prof. Dr. Martin Jörg Schäfer
Curriculum
Martin Jörg Schäfer has been Professor of Modern German Literature and Theatre Research at the Universität Hamburg since 2014. After receiving his doctorate in Hamburg in 2001, he held teaching and research positions at the Universität Paderborn, New York University, the Universität Erfurt (habilitation 2010), the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, the Nietzsche-Kolleg Weimar, and the Universität Siegen. He was a visiting professor at Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University in the USA; he was also a guest lecturer at Fudan University, Shanghai. His current research examines written artifacts in the performing arts (as part of the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence "Understanding Written Artifacts"), co-creative texts in contemporary theater (in exchange with Hamburg theaters and local performance artists), as well as cultural techniques and metaphorologies of gathering (as part of the DFG research network "Versammeln").
Publications (selection)
- K. Nissen-Rizvani, M.J. Schäfer (eds.): TogetherText. Prozessual erzeugte Texte im Gegenwartstheater. Theater der Zeit: Recherchen. Berlin 2020.
- M.J. Schäfer: Das Theater der Erziehung. Goethes „pädagogische Provinz“ und die Vorgeschichten der Theatralisierung von Bildung. Transcript Verlag. Bielefeld 2016.
- geheimagentur, M.J. Schäfer, V. Tsianos: The Art of Being Many. Towards a New Theory and Practice of Gathering. Transcript Verlag. Bielefeld 2016.
- Netzwerk Kunst und Arbeit: art works. Ästhetik des Postfordismus. b_books. Berlin 2015.
- M.J. Schäfer: Die Gewalt der Muße. Wechselverhältnisse von Arbeit, Nichtarbeit, Ästhetik. diaphanes. Zürich/Berlin 2013.
- M.J. Schäfer, N. Werber (eds.): Inszenierungen von ‚Intensität‘ und ‚Lebendigkeit‘ in der Gegenwartsliteratur. LiLi (Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik), Nr. 170, Juni 2013.
- S. Peters, M.J. Schäfer (eds.): „Intellektuelle Anschauung“. Figurationen von Evidenz zwischen Kunst und Wissen. Transcript Verlag. Bielefeld 2006.
Research topic: Powers of Gathering
The project examines the ways in which, since the 18th century, discourses examining the gathering of a political community are permeated by various translations of dynamis, vis and potentia. These terms build complex relations with one another: For better or worse, the emergence of a political body is described as brought into being through the “power” generated by a physical assembly. Related terms such as “force”, “might” or, in the 20th century, “energy” also come into play. Although these terms work in a similar fashion they cannot be subsumed under a common denominator. The project will trace respective lines of argument, historical developments as well as discursive connections and ruptures, e.g. with respect to the “power” allegedly generated by an assembly (in Rousseau or, currently, Butler), the ego-dissolving “sense of strength” (as examined for the modern “masses” by Freud and Canetti) or the always looming reversal of political “might” into oppressive “violence” (Arendt). While exploring how “powers”, “forces”, “strengths”, “energies” etc. work as an explanatory model on a metaphorical level the project will also analyse the ways in which the respective scientific concepts of “nature” are evoked, put to use or ignored.
Research results: Powers of Gathering
Taking its cue from current political practices of assembling and gathering, the project was devoted to the ways in which discourses on the assemblies of political communities have been permeated by various translations of dynamis, vis, and potentia. Examining texts since the 18th century, the project was able to establish discursive patterns as well as metaphorical strategies that are employed to describe the "forces" released or generated (in a good or bad sense) by a physical gathering. The project focused on the underlying metaphors and concepts of force in theories and narratives of a democratic potential of the political assembly from Rousseau to Butler with special attention to Rousseau (Du contract social) and Arendt (The Human Condition). Both theories implicitly or explicitly claim that there is a shift from a mechanical or vitalistic understanding of (physical) force to a mystical understanding of “power”. In close readings, the project was able to depict the inner tension of the respective projects while taking into account the scientific and metaphysical concepts of force invoked by the two authors: In both cases, the assertion of a political "power" of the assembly relies on the fact that those mechanical or vitalistic forces, from which this “power” is supposedly cleansed, must remain at work – albeit in a hidden fashion, “from behind the scenes” so to speak.