For this seminar, Florian Breitkopf will be presenting some work in progress on "Conceptual and Digital Reflections Zittern".

Why is Faust convinced that "[d]as Schaudern ist der Menschheit bestes Teil" (Goethe, Faust II)? Why does E.T.A. Hoffmann's Anselmus start to tremble when he meets Lindhorst in Der Goldne Topf, and what does Novalis mean by "zitternde Gedankenlosigkeit" in Heinrich von Ofterdingen? Zittern (trembling, quivering, quaking, shaking, shivering) is an affect that provides insights into the mental state of a human being, although it may not always be entirely clear why a person trembles. Is it out of fear, lust, anger or joy? Is religion or transcendental experience involved? Can politics make us shiver? Is zittern a gendered affect? In short: who trembles and why?

Florian will argue that the use of zittern in a literary text has a function; the affect indicates something beyond mere physical and emotional vibration and instability. This presentation approaches the affect via Reinhart Koselleck's thoughts on conceptual history. Using digital Humanities tools and techniques, Florian will demonstrate how the 'traditional' way of writing and researching the (hi)stories of concepts can be refined by method of digital scholarship. Ultimately, his goal is to present a first step toward analyzing and understanding the quasi-concept zittern.