Energia / Energie
a cura di / hrsg. v. Elena Bellavia – Raul Calzoni

Sommario

• Frontespizio e indice, pp. 1-6

Saggi

• Prospettive sull’energia fra lingua e letteratura tedesca. Introduzione, pp. 7-23
  Elena Bellavia, Raul Calzoni
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-01
  

  • This article introduces the topic and outlines the contributions of this special issue of «Studi Germanici – I quaderni dell’AIG». The article tackles the challenging concept of energy from different angles – from literary to linguistic and translation – with the aim of providing new food for thought on a topic worthy of attention and investigation in the context of linguistics and in the field of literary criticism. The aim of the essay is, in fact, to identify and discuss the dialectics of energy in different literary and textual genres, illuminating the areas of intersection between science and literature (mesmerism, magnetism, galvanism, etc.) and the repercussions of scientific, linguistic, philosophical and literary-critical theories on energy on the German-speaking language and literature, also on a stylistic and structural level. Dealing with the concept of energy in German linguistics and literature means, in fact, referring to various philosophical attitudes with which, especially in the transition between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the phenomenon of ‘language’ was viewed.

• «…und der Winter steht vor der Tür». Diskursive Angstkonstruktion und neue Selbstverständlichkeiten in Energie- und
  Nachhaltigkeitsdiskursen, pp. 27-45
  Goranka Rocco
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-02
  

  • This study aims to elaborate keywords, topoi, deontics and entanglements of ‘energy’-related discourses in a broader context of discourses on crisis (economic crisis, financial crisis, oil crisis, Römer/Wengeler 2013, Römer 2017), war and sustainability. The central topics are (i) the deontics of the German concept Energie, (ii) Energie as a permanent state or cause of crisis, (iii) Energiekrise (energy crisis) as a topos, (iv) the entanglement (Jäger 2004) of energy-related discourses with discourses on crisis, war and sustainability and (v) the discursive construction of fear or uncertainty through expectation of harm (Radieski 2011) and helplessness, especially in connection to the hypothetised resemantisation of the sustainability concept. The corpus based analysis and discussion of these interrelated issues intend to highlight some new aspects of current crisis and sustainability discourses

• La campagna «80 Millionen gemeinsam für Energiewechsel» del Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz: comunicazione tra istituzione e cittadino per la svolta energetica, pp. 47-66
  Luigia Tessitore
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-03
  

  • The paper focuses on the analysis of the campaign «80 Millionen gemeinsam für Energiewechsel», launched by the German Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection in 2022. The campaign is part of a broader environmental policy named Energiewende, i.e. ‘energetic transition’, which was introduced in 2011 to promote renewable energetic sources instead of the traditional ones. As was the case with the Energiewende, the narrative supported by the ministry regarding the Energiewechsel focuses on concepts such as a sense of community, collective participation and cooperation of the various social actors as key elements for the success of the reforms.
    The aim of the essay is to investigate the frames used in the campaign. As shown through the analysis of the press releases and textual sections of the campaign website, the most recurring metaphors refer to the conceptual domains of economics (consumption savings) and politics (independence from Russian energy supplies), which clash with ecology and sustainability. 

• Die Semantik der Energieversorgung in Deutschland und Italien: eine multimodale Studie, pp. 67-88
  Federico Collaoni – Sonja Kuri – Iris Jammernegg
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-04
  

  • This paper examines German and Italian energy supply discourse before and after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022 through a contrastive analysis of selected bilingual corpora of websites belonging to energy stakeholders. More specifically, it investigates the lexical, semantic and multimodal patterns that are used to represent energy supply processes. Language patterns related to expressions such as energy security, efficiency, costs are analysed to show how energy supply semantics has developed diachronically due to the new European energy scenario in 2022-2023. Starting from the key terms defined at the beginning, the paper explores how the climate crisis and today’s significant energy crisis were already conceptualized and conveyed semiotically before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. Finally, the paper shows the semiotic codes used by the actors to semanticize strong or weak sustainability or, in other words, the regeneration of natural capital and its partial substitutability.

• Energiearmut, Friedensenergie, Bürgerenergiegesellschaft. Nominalkomposition mit dem Substantiv Energie in Zeiten der Energiewende, pp. 89-105
  Ilaria Meloni
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-05

• • This paper aims to show the function and occurrence of the word Energie in nominal determinative compounds in which the noun occurs as a first or second element (Energiekosten, Solarenergie) or inside multiple compounds (Gebäudeenergiegesetz) with left-,
    right- or binary-branching. The corpus gathers documents from various digital sources as well as specialized texts relating to energy. The analysis was carried out with the tools available in Sketch Engine and examines the compound words from a morphological as well as a semantic-lexical point of view. The collected data confirm the condensation of the content in compounding, especially in multi-word technical terms. However, not only the technical terminology, but also the everyday language is thereby enriched with neologisms (Energiearmut, Energieunion, Energiewendegesetz), semantic remotivations (Friedensenergie), and creative ad hoc compounds (Energiewende-Booster). 

• Energie ed energia: un elemento complesso nella Deutsche Leichte Sprache e nel linguaggio facile italiano, pp. 107-127
  Valentina Crestani
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-06

  • The paper analyses linguistic simplification in German and Italian in the form that ideally has the highest degree of comprehensibility: Easy Language. The aim of the analysis is the theoretical and empirical comparison between Easy German and Easy Italian given the different situation regarding research, rules and practice in Germany and Italy. After a theoretical overview of the writing rules, the empirical analysis carried out mainly with Sketch Engine focuses on a corpus of texts centred on energy: we investigate which terms recur most frequently in the texts and consider their distribution in the corpus. A part of the analysis compares the translation from the original text with that in Easy language to check how the linguistic and conceptual complexity of the terms characterising the texts has been resolved. 

• Erneuerbare Energien. Eine fachsprachliche Annäherung anhand des Bundesberichts Energieforschung, pp. 129-144
  Eriberto Russo
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-07

  • In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the topic of renewable energy, particularly Goal 7, ensuring affordable and clean energy, plays a significant role. While it has been examined on a discursive and socio-economic level, its consideration from the perspective of language for special purposes needs further investigation. This essay aims to shed light on the linguistic specialized representation of renewable energy, concerning the Federal Report on Energy Research 2022, which extensively addresses the challenges of the energy transition. The article is divided into two sections. The first section examines the connection between language for special purposes and renewable energy. The second part offers a terminological analysis of selected sections of the Energy Research Program, with a particular focus on the project funding chapter.
     

• Aspetti prosodici del giornalismo narrativo nei podcast sulla sostenibilità in lingua tedesca, pp. 145-162
  Vincenzo Damiazzi
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-08

  • In recent years, the topic of sustainability has witnessed a surge in popularity, largely attributable to the enhanced visibility facilitated by digital media. This paradigm shift has led to a novel approach – commonly referred to as narrative journalism – that merges conventional journalism with elements of entertainment and a subjective perspective. The emergence of this approach can be attributed to the limitations of traditional media, which have been observed to emphasise and sensationalise environmental issues, often lacking comprehensive information. Digital media, such as podcasts, have emerged as a means to address these limitations by engaging listeners through appealing and engaging content. While the style and intonation patterns of classic broadcast journalism are well-defined and easily identifiable, narrative journalism remains under-researched in terms of prosody. Initial analyses suggest that there are few recurring prosodic patterns that could contribute to the identification of a unified speaking style in sustainability podcasts. 

• Emotive Einstellung und Schallenergie im spontanen Deutschen: Gegenüberstellung von thematisierten und ausgedrückten Emotionen, pp. 163-177
  Valentina Schettino
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-09

  • In this article, the extent to which sound energy in German works as an acoustic correlate for the expression of the emotive dimensions is discussed. In particular, the role of sound energy in the expression (i.e. para-linguistic and acoustic manifestation) of emotions and its relationship with thematized (verbally communicated) emotions is investigated: prosody and lexicon are thus compared in spontaneous speech with specific regards to the emotional dimension. The results show that sound energy and the prosodic level are crucial in the interpretation of emotional attitudes in German. Indeed, they correlate well with the lexical level in most cases (61.05% of the assessable units), but the prosodic analysis proves to be necessary for at least 33.06% of the given units. The present work corroborates the fact that emotional communication should be considered multidimensional: all considered factors are at stake and need to be included in the interpretation phase. 

• Die Energie des Gegenständlichen. Zur Logik des Nebeneinanders als Gestaltungsprinzip (mit einem Ausblick auf Judith Schalanskys Verzeichnis einiger Verluste), pp. 179-195
  Guglielmo Gabbiadini
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-10

  • As well known, Erich Auerbach’s essay Philologie der Weltliteratur has proved of seminal importance to the development of flexible methods of textual analysis. To sustain his arguments, Auerbach deployed a set of metaphors referring to the multifarious field of energy. This article focuses on one single expression, i.e. ‘Energie des Gegenständlichen’ (energy of objectivity). It sets out to show how Auerbach’s imagery resonates with traditions of thought derived from the Age of Goethe. Specific forms of energy featured prominently especially when discussing techniques of juxtaposition from antiquity to contemporary texts. A quick foray into literary anthropology will help to clarify to what extent the ‘energy of objectivity’ may still inform the structure of remarkable pieces of prose in which the logic of juxtaposition comes to the fore. Judith Schalansky’s Verzeichnis einiger Verluste epitomizes this formal trend and will serve as a case in point.
     

• Die Energie des Incipits. Zur Kategorisierung narrativer Anfänge, pp. 197-210
  Alessandra Goggio
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-11

  • Text beginnings, particularly those of narrative texts, have always been a source of fascination and a central focus of scholarly inquiry, particularly in recent years. A very fortunate metaphorical descriptive aid in this context is that of energy: the ‘energy of the beginning’ can manifest in different ways, depending on whether the incipit, like a big bang, presents what is being narrated as the principium of the text itself or whether it illustrates and reflects the process of the act of narration. Drawing on examples from narrative texts in German-language literature – specifically Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (1910) by Rainer Maria Rilke, Der Spaziergang (1917) by Robert Walser and Faserland (1995) by Christian Kracht – the paper aims to shed light on two different types of narrative beginnings, each corresponding to the aforementioned concepts. 

• L’enérgeia dell’organismo letterario. Goethe, Venezia e i prodromi della Gattungstheorie morfologica, pp. 211-226
  Matteo Zupancic
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-12

  • The first months of 1790 mark a milestone in Goethe’s morphological method. During this period, the poet appears to have developed a growing interest in the domain of infusoria and invertebrates, part of which were collected under the label of ‘zoophyte’. Those creatures provided an excellent case study for the investigation of the autopoietic energy of living organisms. At the same time, the poet began the composition of the Venetian Epigrams, a collection distinguished by a protean transformation of both its poems and its overall organisation. The article analyses the influence of invertebrates, in particular the freshwater polyp, on the genesis of the VE through a detailed account of Goethe’s sources, letters, scientific annotations and the close reading of some of the earlier epigrams, dedicated to the acrobat Bettine. Furthermore, Goethe’s comparison between the combinatory potential of the freshwater polyp’s self-structuring ontology and the similarly malleable form of the epigram appears to give rise to broader considerations regarding the poet’s theory of literary genres. 

• «Für Gesteine, Metalle, Wasser und Pflanzen eine Seele […] haben»: sonnambulismo, fenomeni magnetici e genesi della follia nel «Lenz» di Georg Büchner, pp. 227-242
  Antonio Locuratolo
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-13

  • Büchner’s «Lenz» has been always interpreted as an artist’s pathography because of its writer’s interest in psychiatry and anatomical studies. Most of the critics associate the novella to the commonplace that equals madness to genius by not taking into consideration that so-called ‘somnambulismus speech’, in which Büchner gives his insight into the controversial theory of mesmerism while scientifically analysing his character’s madness as a real pathology. Here the author cites a lot of psychiatric texts of popular scientists of his time to contrast Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert’s ‘romantic’ corruption of animal magnetism which reads mental illness as a metaphysical somnambulism-like condition that provides patients with divination gifts. Despite his doubts about the scientific plausibility of Mesmer’s teachings, Büchner is not opposed to his doctrine which still represents an aesthetic and political model for his writings.

• Aby Warburg’s Ergriffenheit/Ergriffen sein: The Force of Emotions, pp. 243-258
  Grazia Pulvirenti
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-14

  • Aby Warburg’s seminal concept of the Pathosformel arises within theoretical reflections centred on the phenomenon of ‘being emotionally moved’. The encompassing spectrum of these affective states finds its synthesis in the notion of Ergriffenheit/Ergriffen sein, representing the energy exerted by artworks upon their beholders.
    This study presents the concept of Ergriffenheit/Ergriffen sein as an energetic manifestation of the dynamic changes in the bodily state of individuals exposed to aesthetic encounters. Artworks are conceived as dynamic entities imbued with agency, actively participating in the intricate interplay between the energies they encapsulate and those they exert upon their image beholders. Through this inquiry, the paper aims to provide a thorough comprehension of the intricate interrelationship among emotions, bodily responses, and images. Moreover, this examination acknowledges art as inherently rooted in biological foundations and its evolution within historical and cultural contexts. 

• Pensare lo spazio e narrare il paesaggio. Energia, architettura e sguardo letterario in Alina Herbing, Rem Koolhaas e Juli Zeh, pp. 259-277
  Liliana Giacoponi
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-15

  • This contribution explores how contemporary German literature represents energy issues, landscape, and social changes. Recent narratives shift focus from cities to less urbanized areas, away from the transformation driven by technology and macroeconomic demands. The essay examines how Dorfromane challenge the rural idyll, focusing on small provincial villages. These decentralised communities offer a chance to rethink sustainable spaces and landscapes, with decentralisation linked to new energy systems in literary works by Zeh and Herbing. Rural areas, often seen as disconnected from cities, are shown to be shaped by infrastructure and deeply connected to metropolitan dynamics. These formations, however, prove neither safe nor sustainable for the environment, reflecting the impact of globalized economic cycles. The analysis draws from Zeh’s Unterleuten and Herbing’s Niemand ist bei den Kälbern, and is enriched by the exhibition Countryside. The Future, curated by Rem Koolhaas, highlighting the rapid transformations in rural areas traditionally seen as stable and slow-moving. 

• Orgon: il concetto di energia sessuale di Wilhelm Reich come modello letterario per Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, pp. 279-296
  Michele Vangi
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-16

  • The contribution intends to investigate the theme of energy in an apparently marginal fallout in post-World War II German literature: the reception of Wilhelm Reich’s theories. A controversial figure in the psychoanalytic movement, Reich identified in a ‘sexophobic’ upbringing of the child, both the root of future neuroses and the social tendency to submission to authoritarianism. Arriving in the United States in 1939, Reich sought to demonstrate the existence of Orgon, a ‘bioenergy’ that would express itself in healthy sexual vitality in human beings. Reich’s theories found resonance in the German culture of 1968: in that context, sexual liberation had become both a private and political issue. After outlining the socio-political aspects, the study focuses on the influence of Reich’s thought on the poetics of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. In Brinkmann’s later works, the psychoanalyst’s influence is clearly discernible in the radical critique of language, a channel that the writer considers inadequate to give voice to the primordial energy of existence. 

• La poesia nucleare di Yoko Tawada: contaminazioni della quotidianità dopo Fukushima, pp. 297-313
  Matteo Iacovella
  DOI: 10.82007/SG/Q/2024-6-17

  • On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by the strongest earthquake in its recorded history, followed by a tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This disaster wrought unmeasurable harm to human and environmental health, and compelled people to rethink daily life in a contaminated area. In the works of Japanese-German writer Yoko Tawada, Fukushima plays a central role, especially in prose texts. Her poems written in the aftermath of the incident have received scant critical attention. This paper addresses that gap by analyzing the cycle out of sight (2020). It examines ‘nuclear poetry’ as a narrative response to major nuclear disasters of the 20th century. Its objective is to highlight the ecocritical and political implications of nuclear energy discourse and to show how Tawada’s poetry reflects the invisible yet pervasive presence of radiation. This presence contaminates daily life and language itself, reshaping perceptions and altering our understanding of common concepts, such as time and nature. 

Hanno collaborato / Beitragende

• Le autrici e gli autori, pp. 315-319

ISSN: 0039-2952