Büchner’s Animals: A Bestiary

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Roland Borgards
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; History of Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 509688875

In Büchner’s short work there are remarkably many animals to be found. Animals are mentioned explicitly nearly 250 times, with altogether one hundred different animal species being mentioned. These animals enable a simultaneously coherent and differentiated field of questions to be bound to Büchner’s work, in which elements of anthropology, political theory, Species Politics and aesthetics meet: Through these animals Büchner’s texts reflect on the insecure position of the human, the violent mechanisms of social hierarchies and the politicisation of the biological and its aesthetic - in particular, grotesque - stagings. Büchner does not present these questions as an elaborate theory, rather scatters them throughout his varied animal terms and species within his literary texts. The intended project aims to collect these scattered insinuations within one integrative study, yet by so doing dedicate suitable attention to each of Büchner’s particular animal mentions. The format of the Bestiary aims towards this concept of unity in variety, with the animals found in Büchner’s works to be individually interpreted across in 83 entries from A wie Affe (Eng: A for Ape) to Z wie Zweifüßler (Eng: Bipeds) and brought together within a monograph in an attempt at completeness. This undertaking is on one hand anchored within the field of Büchner research. In this way it is linked to the tradition of annotation of the Marburger Büchner Ausgabe (MBA 2000-2013) as well as to the cultural studies and epistemological studies approaches to Büchner that have emerged within the last 20 years. On the other hand, the undertaking is situated within the framework of Cultural and Literary Animal Studies. In this way it is linked to a new research paradigm which established itself with its own specific discourse and set of theories and methods within the last 10 years. Thus, the proposed project ultimately aims towards bringing together two otherwise widely differentiated fields: Author studies and Animal Studies. The project can make use of a comprehensive body of previous research of the PI. With regards to Büchner, there are, among others a handbook, a monograph, a collected volume and 15 essays to make use of, and with regards to Animal Studies a handbook, three collected volumes and 83 essays of which five have a special focus of animals in the works of Georg Büchner. In these five essays, as well as in presentations and lecture scripts from three semesters, 42 of the 83 planned entries have already been drafted; the preparatory work (research, argumentation) for the remaining 41 entries is already complete.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants