Neun Todsünden romanistischer Literaturwissenschaft. Ein Erfahrungsbericht

Abstract

Why did romance literary studies loose dramatically its public interest in the past decades though there is still an interest in literature? The following article criticizes nine aspects of the usual ways of investigation and teaching praxis in romance studies which might have contributed to its loss of significance: its wish for autonomy, a sacral understanding of literature, an endogamy in the praxis of investigation, the primacy of secondary literature, the "phantom" lecture, the plethora of literary theory, the loss of the experiential character of literature, the insufficient standardization, the primacy of solitary investigation and the insufficient use of teaching in training linguistic and rhetorical competence.