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- Luhmann, Niklas (2) (entfernen)
This article investigates the function and reality of language in Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. How can one interpret the systems-theoretical assumption that language is based on communication? Luhmann describes language as a dynamic media/form relationship, which is able to couple the social and psychological system. This structural coupling, which constructs consciousness and language as two autonomous systems, raises problems if one defines language from a cognitive point of view. This article discusses these problems and aims to develop assumptions and questions within the systems-theoretical approach.
This study is an introduction to the systems theory developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) and its significance for literaty studies. It departs from a historical point of view which understands the period around 1800 as the climax of the transformation from a stratified European society into a modern society with a social order structured by differentiated systems such as education, economy, law or literature, each with its specific function and characterized by its typical form of communication. In Germany, the literary system reflects this process in the poetology of Romantic writers. Literary communication is defined as a second order observation that oscillates between the real and potential and makes the ordered forms clearer. The autonomous and differentiated literary system becomes a field that is being observed by its environment. The history of literature in the 19th century instrumentalizes it for political goals, while the new copyright laws and the idea of the book as a profitable merchandise imbued the system of literature with accelerated dynamics.