The redemption of things : collecting and dispersal in German realism and modernism / Samuel Frederick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frederick, Samuel, author.

Series:

Signale : modern German letters, cultures, and thought.

Cornell scholarship online.

Signale : modern German letters, cultures, and thought

Cornell scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German literature--19th century--History and criticism.

German literature.

German literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Collectors and collecting in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource.)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library, 2022.

Summary:

Collecting is usually understood as an activity that bestows permanence, unity and meaning on otherwise scattered and ephemeral objects. In 'The Redemption of Things', Samuel Frederick emphasizes that to collect things, however, always entails displacing, immobilizing, and potentially disfiguring them, too. He argues that the dispersal of objects, seemingly antithetical to the collector's task, is actually essential to the logic of gathering and preservation. Through analyses of collecting as a dialectical process of preservation and loss, The Redemption of Things illustrates this paradox by focusing on objects that challenge notions of collectability: ephemera, detritus, and trivialities such as moss, junk, paper scraps, dust, scent, and the transitory moment.

Contents:

Theorizing collecting

Moss (Stifter)

The photographic instant (Fischinger)

Divine debris (Gotthelf)

Maculature / Zettel (Frisch)

Junk and containers (Keller)

Dust (Glauser)

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2022.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 3, 2022).

ISBN:

1-5017-6157-9

1-5017-6156-0

OCLC:

1245956071