1809190134     

Attention and distraction in modern German literature, thought, and culture / Carolin Duttlinger

Duttlinger, Carolin, 1976- [Verfasserin/Verfasser]

First edition

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2022

xvii, 437 Seiten : Illustrationen

Englisch

Literaturverzeichnis: Seiten 405-428. - Hier auch später erschienene, unveränderte Nachdrucke

Erscheint auch als: Attention and Distraction in Modern German Literature, Thought, and Culture / Duttlinger, Carolin (Online-Ausgabe)

Erscheint auch als: Attention and distraction in modern German literature, thought, and culture / Caroline Duttlinger (Online-Ausgabe)

Rezensiert in: [Rezension von: Duttlinger, Carolin, 1976-, Attention and distraction in modern German literature, thought and culture] / Fuchs, Anne

0-19-285630-8 ; 978-0-19-285630-2

OCoLC: 1344265480     

*Deutsch ; Literatur ; Aufmerksamkeit <Motiv> ; Ablenkung <Motiv> ; Geschichte 1750-2000     Zum Register

*Deutschland ; Österreich ; Aufmerksamkeit ; Psychologie ; Rezeption ; Geistesleben ; Geschichte 1880-1970     Zum Register

*Deutsch ; Literatur ; Aufmerksamkeit <Motiv> ; Psychotechnik      Zum Register

 

Attention is fundamental to how we experience reality, and yet this notion has been understood and practised in very different ways across history. This interdisciplinary study explores the dynamic relationship between attention and its supposed opposite, distraction, as it unfolds from the eighteenth century to the present day. Its primary focus is on twentieth-century Germany and Austria, where matters of (in)attention gained a unique urgency during a period of social change and political crisis. 00Building on Enlightenment practices of self-observation, nineteenth-century Germany was the birthplace of experimental psychology, a discipline which sought to measure and potentially enhance human attention. This approach was also adopted outside the psychological laboratory-for instance in the First World War, when psychological testing was used to select soldiers for particular strategic positions. After the war these techniques filtered through into everyday life. Weimar Germany was unique in the western world in rolling out the methods of 'psychotechnics' across civilian society-in fields such as work and education, advertising and mass entertainment. This state-sponsored programme aimed to reshape people's minds and behaviour in order to build a more efficient, streamlined society.00But as this study shows, this initiative also had profound repercussions in the fields of thought, literature, and culture. New readings of leading writers and intellectuals of the period-Kafka, Musil, Kracauer, Benjamin, and Adorno-are interspersed with broader cultural-historical chapters dedicated to the history of psychology and psychiatry, to Weimar self-help literature, portrait photography, and musical culture.