The Formation of Theory and the Critique of ‘Wissenschaft’ in the Early Twentieth Century

Theory has often been associated with a number of antiscientific or at least anti-academic sentiments. The prehistory of what has come to be referred to as “theory” and specifically the relationship between theory and the so-called “Krise der Wissenschaft” (“crisis of science”) around 1900 lies at the center of this research project. A particular focus will be placed on theory’s affinity with literature since both are dealing with phenomena that cannot be grasped discursively or conceptually. The project examines the distinctive rhetorical forms, modes of representation, and medial formats that authors deployed in what have become canonical styles of thought in order to stabilize their individual or group positions. This line of inquiry also includes examining “nonscientific” authorities like charismatic teachers and prophets as well as addressing figures of thought that were not traditionally part of accepted academic discourse like the concepts of the Tragic or the Demonic.

The focus of this project is the way in which “theory” addresses its audience, or figures an immanent or imaginary addressee of theoretical speech. Who, ultimately, does theory address and how is this reader solicited in theoretical texts? Which rhetorical and argumentative strategies does theory pursue and which types of texts are deployed in order to influence and guide the addressee? Does theory, especially in the German tradition, contribute to the formation of a monumental, singular subjectivity? Or does theory aim to mobilize communication? Is theory interested in ritual or emancipatory notions? Towards which kinds of social models does theory see itself aspiring? Is theory’s addressee conceptualized as the member of an elitist circle (itself perhaps an element of an atrophied stage in the “aesthetic state”), or rather as someone who is enabled by theory to emerge and act as a universal intellectual?