Jose Marti contributed greatly to Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain with words as well as revolutionary action. Although he died before the formation of an independent republic, he has since been hailed as a heroic martyr inspiring Cuban republican traditions.

The long-term scientific interests of Alexander von Humboldt ranged from anthropology and ancient American studies to geology and geography, climatology and cultural theory, physics and plant geography to language history, volcanology and zoology. As a scientist, he crossed different disciplines and explored new paths of knowledge. Humboldt developed a transdisciplinary and, in the widest sense, nomadic knowledge as a traveller through the sciences. Like a nomad, he did not seek to possess or destroy a territory (of knowledge): no wonder that (...) he became the co-founder of an ecological and geo-ecological thinking. Humboldt wrote and published his works in German as well as in French. In his American Travel Diaries, which returned to Berlin in November 2013, and which are still awaiting their scientific analysis, Humboldt constantly changes between German and French, but also between Latin and Spanish. The author of the Kosmos couldn’t be used for nationalist purposes. Thus, Alexander von Humboldt can be understood as a nomad of science in constant movement, and in this sense as a world citizen. This first theorist of globalization shifted between the words, between the sciences, between the worlds. For him, the greatest possible mobility was not only a scientific program, but also the program of a life – his life. Humboldt wasn’t concerned with any specialization that would lead to a fragmented dialogue with other specialists. He was concerned with a nomadic knowledge, which, thanks to his extensive network of correspondents, always delivered the opportunity to argue from different disciplinary standpoints at the same time. His thinking doesn’t know the limits of interdisciplinary or “disciplined” research oppressing us today, but it rather took aim at the creation of a new world, in which mankind would be able to live together on a planetary scale in freedom and peace. (shrink)

Beginning with Erich Auerbach's reflections on the Goethean concept of world literature, Ottmar Ette unfolds the theory and practice of Literatures of the World. Today, only those literary theories which are oriented upon a history of movement are still capable of doing justice to the confusing diversity of highly dynamic, worldwide transformations. This is because they examine transareal pathways in the field of literature. This volume captures literary processes of exchange and transformation between the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Pacific as well (...) as the interplay of different ways of narrating space and time. Thus, this volume speaks from a fractal point of view and unfolds multiple perspectives. Literatures of the World allow the reader to think in different logical frameworks at the same time, therefore shaping our future on the basis of the diversity of humankind. (shrink)

Die Debatte um die Frage nach dem Lebenswissen hat weiter an Fahrt aufgenommen, seitdem der Begriff im Jahr 2007 von Ottmar Ette in die kulturwissenschaftliche Diskussion eingeführt wurde. Die im vorliegenden Band versammelten Beiträge versuchen, diese Diskussion entscheidend voranzutreiben und neue Horizonte aktuellen wie künftigen literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Denkens und Handelns aufzuzeigen. Der Band geht auf ein internationales Symposium zurück, das im Juli 2010 am Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies stattfand. Der Stil wissenschaftlicher Konvivenz, der bei diesem Symposium geschaffen wurde, (...) kommt in allen hier versammelten Texten zum Ausdruck. Europäische wie außereuropäische, philologische wie philosophische, fachgeschichtliche wie medienhistorische, erzähltheoretische wie literarästhetische, transkulturelle wie transdisziplinäre Ansätze messen die Dimensionen eines Forschungsgebietes aus, dessen Wissensformen und Wissensnormen es selbst noch näher zu bestimmen gilt. Dieser Herausforderung ist der Band verpflichtet. (shrink)

Dieser Band entfaltet eine Theorie und Praxis der Literaturen der Welt ausgehend von Erich Auerbachs Auseinandersetzung mit dem von Goethe geprägten Weltliteratur-Konzept. Allein bewegungsgeschichtlich ausgerichtete Kultur- und Literaturtheorien sind heute in der Lage, der verwirrenden Vielfalt hochdynamischer Veränderungen in der Welt durch die Betrachtung transarealer Bahnungen im Feld der Literatur gerecht zu werden. Literarische Austausch- und Transformationsprozesse zwischen Mittelmeer, Atlantik und Pazifik sowie das Zusammenspiel verschiedener Erzählmöglichkeiten von Raum und Zeit werden hier aus einer gleichsam fraktalen und vielperspektivischen Sichtweise erfasst. (...) Die Literaturen der Welt erlauben uns dabei, in unterschiedlichen Logiken zugleich zu denken und damit Zukunft aus der Vielfalt zu gestalten. (shrink)