Caroline Lusin Bücher

Die Frage nach der Einfühlung in literarische Figuren ist spätestens seit dem 'ethical turn' in den Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften aktueller denn je. Dieser Band untersucht das Spannungsfeld zwischen emotionalem Engagement, intellektuellem Interesse und ästhetischer Distanz, wie es für literarische Texte charakteristisch ist, unter den Gesichtspunkten der Empathie und Sympathie. Inwiefern lässt sich das Empfinden von Empathie und Sympathie für literarische Figuren mithilfe kognitionswissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse verstehen? Welche narrativen Strategien halten unterschiedliche Genres bereit, um Empathie und Sympathie oder aber kritischen Abstand und Antipathie zu erzeugen? Der Band widmet sich Fragen wie diesen aus komparatistischer Perspektive, indem er Beiträge aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Germanistik und Romanistik vereinigt; unter einem erweiterten Textbegriff werden zudem auch film- und medienwissenschaftliche Ansätze berücksichtigt.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the television series has rivalled cinema as the paradigmatic filmic medium. Like few other genres, it lends itself to exploring society in its different layers. In the case of Great Britain and Ireland, it functions as a key medium in depicting the state of the nation. Focussing on questions of genre, narrative form, and serialisation, this volume examines the variety of ways in which popular recent British and Irish television series negotiate the concept of community as a key component of the state of the nation.

The British Empire is indelibly part of British history, and its legacy still shapes British self-conceptions decisively. The heritage of British India in particular, the celebrated ‘Jewel in the Crown’, pervades various aspects of British everyday life and popular culture, ranging from language and food to music and movies. Exploring Britain’s imperial history is hence a crucial step in understanding the state of Britain today. Anglo-Indian life-writing – the autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, and letters of Britons who spent part of their lives in India – offers revealing insights into how the British conceptualised their relationship to the Empire at the time of their supremacy on the subcontinent between 1818 and 1947. Proceeding from the assumption that life in British India was regulated by an exceptionally tight system of norms and conventions, this study investigates how the British pinned their individual lives in India against various forms of collectivity, including social groups and their normative framework as well as the collective frames of narration.