Andrea Erwig, Johannes Ungelenk (ed./eds.)

Berühren Denken
[Thinking Touch]

LiteraturForschung Bd. 40
Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2021, 314 pages
ISBN 978-3-86599-497-4

Etymologically, the term ‘theory’ traces back to ‘viewing.’ The theorist is commonly seen as a distanced observer. This volume, however, challenges this distanced position. The contributions build on a theoretical tradition oriented to the sense of touch as a corrective to the sense of vision. Tactile dimensions of experience such as touching have long been idealized as ‘immediate perception’ beyond any conceptual abstraction. Contrary to this, the authors in this volume examine the complex relation between touching and thinking as well as the conceptual complexities and potentials of touch. They examine not only the various concepts of touch in philosophy and art, but also the theoretical forms of thinking and writing that contain ‘touch’ in themselves.