TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mellmann, Katja
T1  - Was man wissen kann : oder: Gedanken zur Erkenntnisfähigkeit der Literaturwissenschaft am Beispiel der Rede von den Werther-Selbstmorden
T2  - KulturPoetik : journal for cultural poetics
N2  - In recent introductions to German literary studies one reads that the publication of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" was followed by a veritable wave of suicides among its readers. However, according to two studies that have collected and reexamined the few hints we have about such alleged cases the story of the suicide wave seems to be a myth rather than an accurate historical account. Why, then, do we still spread this myth? First, I outline a number of cognitive predispositions that might be responsible for the intuitive plausibility of the suicide story. Second, I try to explain why even in academic writing we often succumb to these cognitive tendencies. I propose that our discipline suffers by generally undervaluing empiricism and that this calls for revision.
KW  - Selbstmord
KW  - Rezeption
KW  - Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
KW  - Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/38026
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-380265
UR  - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274474512_Was_man_wissen_kann__oder_Gedanken_zur_Erkenntnisfhigkeit_der_Literaturwissenschaft_am_Beispiel_der_Rede_von_den_Werther-Selbstmorden
SN  - 2196-7970
SN  - 1616-1203
VL  - 13
IS  - 1
SP  - 94
EP  - 104
PB  - Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -