Papers by Elisabetta Mengaldo
InOpera I-1, 2023
The essay examines aphorism 142 (German song accords with this) from Theodor W. Adorno’s Minima
M... more The essay examines aphorism 142 (German song accords with this) from Theodor W. Adorno’s Minima
Moralia. This text is difficult to decipher not only because of its intricate syntax, but also because of
the many and often implicit cultural references that punctuate it. In this dense miniature, Adorno
makes history of literature and history of music interact, comparing free verse poetry with musical
prose and coming to the conclusion that modern ‘carefully elaborated’ prose – akin to free verse – arises in an attempt to reconcile the metaphysical and sacred charm of verse with the secularisation
of language, thus attempting not to fall back into ‘myth’, but at the same time to save modern language from standardisation and commodification.
Rivista di Filosofia, 2023
Copyright c by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Per altre inf... more Copyright c by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Per altre informazioni si veda https://www.rivisteweb.it Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Unversöhnlichkeiten. Einübungen in Adornos "Minima Moralia", hg. von Pierre Buhlmann, Tobias Nikolaus Klass, Philipp Nolz, Wien: Turia + Kant, 2023
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 45-3, 2022
In the writings of the polymath and experimental scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799... more In the writings of the polymath and experimental scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) one sometimes comes across startlingly modern observations on the phenomenology of scientific activity, for example on the relationship between experiment and hypothesis, on the role of contingence in scientific discoveries, or on the dialectic between the invention of the new and the arrangement of accumulated knowledge. In a record of his private notebooks, known as Sudelbücher ("Waste Books"), he casually notes what constitutes a pure demonstration experiment: Now that we know nature, even a child understands that an experiment is nothing more than a compliment paid to it. It is a mere ceremony. We know its answers beforehand. We ask nature for its consensus as the great lords ask the estates. 1 Demonstration experiments were common around the eighteenth century, not only for didactic purposes, but also in the many forms of spectacularization of science, which concerned in particular a then new and mysterious field of knowledge: electricity. The aforementioned definition, however, also brings with it an implicit distinction between a demonstration experiment and a proper experiment: in the former, phenomena we already know are just confirmed and displayed; in the second, something new, which we haven't discovered yet, comes forth. It was precisely this dialectic of expectability and surprise, typical of scientific activity, that engrossed Ludwik Fleck in the twentieth century. According to Fleck, valuable experiments are always
Immagine Riflessa, I-2022, 2022
This paper traces the semantic history of the concept of inventio/invention and ars topica at the... more This paper traces the semantic history of the concept of inventio/invention and ars topica at the crossroads between classical-humanistic rhetoric, modern experimental science and aesthetics. The basic hypothesis is that between late Humanism and the mid-eighteenth century a split occurred between the semantic connotations of the concepts of inventio and
ars inveniendi on the one hand, topoi (or loci) and ars topica on the other, which became increasingly separated to the point of denoting opposing attitudes: invention marks the ‘new’ and unexpected, which is often the result of chance, while topics tend to be associated with old rhetoric and with an ‘extractive’ dimension: the retrieval of previously archived knowledge.
The complex history of these concepts is sketched with the help of textual examples taken from Galileo, Francis Bacon, Erasmus and John Locke, up to the mid-eighteenth century (Baumgarten and the French encyclopaedists) and, finally, Lichtenberg’s Sudelbücher (the topic of the second part of the essay), that are exemplary for the intersection of the ‘two cultures’ – the humanistic and the scientific one – during the "Sattelzeit".
Studi Germanici, Nuova serie, 19, 2021
Estetica. Studi e ricerche, 2019
L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personal... more L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Poetik der Skizze. Verfahren und diskursive Verortungen einer Kurzprosaform vom Poetischen Realismus bis zur Frühen Moderne, hg. von David-Christoher Assmann und Stefan Tetzlaff, Frankfurt a.M., Winter-Verlag , 2020
Marx konkret. Poetik und Ästhetik des Kapitals. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2020
Mark konkret. Poetik und Ästhetik des "Kapitals", hrsg. von Michael Bies und Elisabetta Mengaldo. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2020
Textgenese und digitales Edieren. Wolfgang Koeppens „Jugend“ im Kontext der Editionsphilologie, ed. by Katharina Krüger, Elisabetta Mengaldo, Eckhard Schumacher , 2016
Fratelli al massacro. Linguaggi, rappresentazioni, narrazioni della Grande Guerra, ed. Tullia Catalan, 2016
Michael Gamper/Ruth Mayer (ed. by): Kurz & knapp. Zur Mediengeschichte kleiner Formen vom 17. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart. Bielefeld: Transcript 2017, 2017
Inventio(n), Ordnung und Erzählung des ‚kleinen Wissens' bei G.Ch. Lichtenberg ELISABETTA MENGALD... more Inventio(n), Ordnung und Erzählung des ‚kleinen Wissens' bei G.Ch. Lichtenberg ELISABETTA MENGALDO I. TOPIK UND ERFINDUNG In einer späten, um 1798 verfassten Notiz des Heftes L seiner Sudelbücher bringt der Experimentalphysiker Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Findung, Erfindung und Entdeckung zusammen, indem er, seiner ‚witzigen' und analogiestiftenden Denkweise entsprechend, rhetorische inventio und Topik mit wissenschaftlicher Entdeckung und biologischer Taxonomie engführt: Wenn man nach gewissen Regeln erfinden lernen könnte, wie z. Ex. die so genannte Loci topici sind, oder wenn die Vernunft sich selbst in den Gang setzen könnte so wäre die[s] gerade eine solche Entdeckung, als die Tiere zu vergrößern, oder Sträuche zur Größe von Eichbäumen auszudehnen. Es scheint, als wenn allen Entdeckungen eine Art von Zufall zum Grunde läge selbst denen, die man durch Anstrengung gemacht zu haben glaubt. Das bereits Erfundene in die beste Ordnung zu bringen, allein die Haupt-Erfindungs-Sprünge scheinen so wenig das Werk der Willkür zu sein als die Bewegung des Herzens. -Eben so kömmt es mir vor, als wenn die Verbesserung, die man den Staaten geben kann durch räsonierende Vernunft, bloß leichte Veränderungen wären; wir machen neue Species, aber
Literarische Geheim- und Privatsprachen, ed. Uta Degner/Martina Wörgötter, 2017
Andrea Afribo, Sergio Bozzola, Arnaldo Soldani (ed. by): "Le occasioni del testo. Venti letture per Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo". Padova: CLEUP 2016, 2016
Auf häufig emphatische Weise ist im 20. Jahrhundert von Dichtern und Lyriktheoretikern mehrmals v... more Auf häufig emphatische Weise ist im 20. Jahrhundert von Dichtern und Lyriktheoretikern mehrmals von einer -in der pessimistischen Variante -Krise der Lyrik bzw. -in der konstruktiven Variante -von einem gewaltigen Transformationsprozess innerhalb der Gattung Lyrik gesprochen worden. Als Ursache galt (etwas grob zusammengefasst) einerseits eine Tendenz zur Auflösung der traditionellen lyrischen Formen bis zu einem kompletten Verszerfall 1 oder gar bis zum Verstummen der lyrischen Gattung; andererseits brachte man diese Transformation mit einer allgemeinen modernen Krise des Subjekts und der damit einhergehenden Kritik der Subjektivität in Verbindung, die an die Namen Friedrich Nietzsche, Ernst Mach und, später, Michel Foucault bzw. an einige paradigmatische literarische Texte (einen für alle: Hofmannsthals Chandos-Brief) gekoppelt sind.
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Papers by Elisabetta Mengaldo
Moralia. This text is difficult to decipher not only because of its intricate syntax, but also because of
the many and often implicit cultural references that punctuate it. In this dense miniature, Adorno
makes history of literature and history of music interact, comparing free verse poetry with musical
prose and coming to the conclusion that modern ‘carefully elaborated’ prose – akin to free verse – arises in an attempt to reconcile the metaphysical and sacred charm of verse with the secularisation
of language, thus attempting not to fall back into ‘myth’, but at the same time to save modern language from standardisation and commodification.
ars inveniendi on the one hand, topoi (or loci) and ars topica on the other, which became increasingly separated to the point of denoting opposing attitudes: invention marks the ‘new’ and unexpected, which is often the result of chance, while topics tend to be associated with old rhetoric and with an ‘extractive’ dimension: the retrieval of previously archived knowledge.
The complex history of these concepts is sketched with the help of textual examples taken from Galileo, Francis Bacon, Erasmus and John Locke, up to the mid-eighteenth century (Baumgarten and the French encyclopaedists) and, finally, Lichtenberg’s Sudelbücher (the topic of the second part of the essay), that are exemplary for the intersection of the ‘two cultures’ – the humanistic and the scientific one – during the "Sattelzeit".
Moralia. This text is difficult to decipher not only because of its intricate syntax, but also because of
the many and often implicit cultural references that punctuate it. In this dense miniature, Adorno
makes history of literature and history of music interact, comparing free verse poetry with musical
prose and coming to the conclusion that modern ‘carefully elaborated’ prose – akin to free verse – arises in an attempt to reconcile the metaphysical and sacred charm of verse with the secularisation
of language, thus attempting not to fall back into ‘myth’, but at the same time to save modern language from standardisation and commodification.
ars inveniendi on the one hand, topoi (or loci) and ars topica on the other, which became increasingly separated to the point of denoting opposing attitudes: invention marks the ‘new’ and unexpected, which is often the result of chance, while topics tend to be associated with old rhetoric and with an ‘extractive’ dimension: the retrieval of previously archived knowledge.
The complex history of these concepts is sketched with the help of textual examples taken from Galileo, Francis Bacon, Erasmus and John Locke, up to the mid-eighteenth century (Baumgarten and the French encyclopaedists) and, finally, Lichtenberg’s Sudelbücher (the topic of the second part of the essay), that are exemplary for the intersection of the ‘two cultures’ – the humanistic and the scientific one – during the "Sattelzeit".
has been subject to several historical and philosophical interpretations
over the last century and a half. But reading this grandiose epos of
modernity also reveals an extraordinary sophistication in Marx’s use of
narrative and rhetorical tools that has only been investigated to a small
extent by researchers. The essay examines various literary techniques
that characterize Marxian polemics in particular, focusing on a number
of central aspects: the relationship between the critical and polemical registers
and the change in polemical style from the young to the late Marx;
the complex mosaic of quotations in Capital that generates a veritable polyphony
of voices with multiple textual functions; the narratives of Capital
and in particular the use of narrative fiction for satirical purposes.