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In recent years, the interest in theory which has once been a moving force of academic research in the field of literary studies appears to have decreased. The status of theory, its relevance and appropriateness for the understanding of literature have been put into doubt. Faced with this observation, some critics have even suggested that we have now entered into a new era of research which can retrospectively be identified as the era "after theory". Against the background of such pronouncements and to a certain extent in opposition to them, the investigations proposed here wish to uphold the idea of the utility and indeed the need for theoretical approaches to literature. To appreciate the status of theory and its possible contribution to a deepened understanding of literature, it is useful not to focus exclusively on the distinction or supposed divide between literature and theory. Instead we should pay attention to what links and unites them. This common ground or common denominator of literature and theory consists in the dimension of language. Furnishing, so to speak, the intellectual material from which both domains of articulation are formed, language constitutes at once the key element of literature and a principal concern of theory.

Rezension zu Nach Szondi. Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft an der Freien Universität Berlin 1965-2015. Hg. Irene Albers. Berlin: Kadmos 2016, 542 S., zahlr. s-w. Abb.

Rezension zu Möller, Reinhard M.: Situationen des Fremden. Ästhetik und Reiseliteratur im späten 18. Jahrhundert. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2016. 419 S.

Rezension zu Christian Moser/Regine Strätling (Hg.): Sich selbst aufs Spiel setzen. Spiel als Technik und Medium von Subjektivierung. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2016.

Rezension zu Spielräume und Raumspiele in der Literatur. Hg. Julia Dettke, Elisabeth Heyne. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016. 389 S.