The contingency of orders: literature as observation between the current and the potential

Authors

  • Michael Korfmann UFRGS
  • Filipe Kegles Kepler UFRGS

Keywords:

Contingency. Modern literature. Niklas Luhmann. System theory

Abstract

The concept of contingency is an essential part of the theory developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998). It conceives the production of sense and the perception of the actual as one among other possible and potential selections. While other functional fields like law or science try to maintain a minimal degree of contingency in order to preserve their functionality, the system of art, on the other hand, discusses and potentiates the contingency of the selective processes of sense. Literature emerges as a second order observation that oscillates between the actual and the potential and, pointing to the blind spot of the observation, sharpens the awareness of other possible forms of order.

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Author Biographies

Michael Korfmann, UFRGS

Graduado em Germanística pela Universitaet Heidelberg (Ruprecht-Karls), Mestre em Germanística e Americanística pela Freie Universitaet Berlin e Doutor em Literatura Comparada pela UFRGS; desenvolveu estágio de pósdoutoramento junto à Universidade de Bonn, Alemanha (2006). Atualmente é professor do Instituto de Letras da UFRGS, onde atua como coordenador da Área de Literaturas Estrangeiras Modernas, no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da UFRGS, e é editor da revista digital Contingentia. Tem inúmeras publicações sobre literatura, os media e a teoria dos sistemas.

Filipe Kegles Kepler, UFRGS

Bacharelando do curso de Letras da UFRGS e co-autor, junto com Michael Korfmann, de dois artigos sobre literatura e cinema: “A literatura e o cinema como novo medium artístico: Hanns Heinz Ewers e O estudante de Praga (1913)”, na revista Pandaemonium Germanicum (2008), e “A configuração medial da literatura”, na revista Contingentia (2007). Traduziu, para a revista Contingentia, uma série de textos de Rainer Maria Rilke.

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Published

2009-12-30

How to Cite

Korfmann, M., & Kepler, F. K. (2009). The contingency of orders: literature as observation between the current and the potential. Gragoatá, 14(27). Retrieved from https://periodicos.uff.br/gragoata/article/view/33108

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 27 (2009): Contingency and expression

Section

Language Articles

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