'Felix Culpa'? Guilt as Culturally Productive Force
'Felix Culpa'? Guilt as Culturally Productive Force
October 2018 - July 2019
During the last decades, it has become more common to appeal to people's sense of guilt regarding current social problems such as economic exploitation or environmental protection. Besides the political instrumentalization, guilt and shame have also been discovered as cultural forces which are able to foster and expedite moral revolutions, for instance. But the development of political discourse to overlap and become indistinguishable with discourses of guilt has also led to a critical stressing of the destructive consequences if collective guilt becomes a leading notion within a culture. In contrast to current research approaches, the main focus of this research group does not lie in the damaging impacts of guilt, of which a person wants to break free or which he or she tries to overcome as quickly as possible. This research group, however, concentrates on the question, to what extent guilt can be seen as a highly significant productive force in cultural processes of legitimation as well as transformation.
The concept of productivity does not solely refer to the economic context. In terms of the research group, it rather emphasizes the outcome which can arise from coping with guilt. The productive dynamics of guilt do not only include passive suffering but also encompass the active denial of guilt, the negotiation of guilt as well as collective practices of remorse, release, reparation, and transformation. Thus, temporalities of guilt, that is: how much guilt is acceptable in a given timeframe and what is the intergenerational divide, is also the focus of this examination. Cultural foundation myths point to the central role of guilt as a source of legitimation in the creation of new social orders that adjudicate and conciliate between victims and perpetrators of antecedent violence. It seems to us that cultures gain their inner dynamics and cosmological coherence from the tension between the attribution and the denial of guilt. On the other hand, if guilt is wholly denied or to quickly dissolved, the chance is missed to develop a new sense of guilt. Furthermore, a reflective sense of guilt allows a culture to develop central measures of values which shape social life in an essential way.
The research group intends to investigate guilt as a significant factor in the development and transformation of culture, which also plays an important role in the creation of cultural belonging. Cultural discourse and symbolic representation will gain special attention in the study of the research group.
The group proposes two innovative ideas:
In the past, cultural theories, as well as theories of society, have pointed to the foundational role of violence in the establishment of law and order (Hobbes, Marx, Foucault, Girard, partly Benjamin) without addressing adequately its corollary, guilt. The project proposes to shift attention from violence to guilt as an ambivalent source not only of cultural cohesion but also of moral revolutions and other forms of transformation which originate from a discourse on guilt, symbolic representations and social practices of guilt attribution, remorse, denial, release, reparation, and transformation.
This change of perspective entails a secondary theoretical innovation that reframes guilt from its current representation as a destructive and burdensome phenomenon, from which individuals and societies ought to be liberated as quickly as possible, to the recognition of guilt as a culturally generative phenomenon.
This new perspective of the research group connects different concepts of guilt from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds. The fellows will engage in interdisciplinary exchange. Through this exchange, they will bring together the Jewish-Christian tradition of guilt with practices of guilt in different religions (Islam, Hinduism, Indigenous religions) and will compare them to guilt practices in non-European settings (Indonesia, India, Mozambique). The main questions are, if this comparison leads to a universal concept of guilt or if within different cultural backgrounds various understandings of guilt exist, which might show some similarities (Familienähnlichkeiten, Wittgenstein) regarding certain elements of guilt and guilt-practice, but which do not coincide all the way. Furthermore, the question arises, how guilt as a social and juridical practice relates to guilt as a subjective sense of guilt and how guilt, shame, remorse, and sorrow can be differentiated from each other.
In March 2017 Dr. Matthias Buschmeier and Prof. Dr. Katharina von Kellenbach have already initiated at the ZiF a workshop dealing with the question of productive guilt, which has paved the way towards the research group 'Felix Culpa' - Guilt as Culturally Productive Force that they are now chairs of. The research group will start their research on this topic at the ZiF from October 2018 until July 2019. The assembled group consists of internationally known scholars from various disciplines such as anthropology, medieval studies, religious studies, slamic studies, law, international relations, philosophy, classics, psychology and literary studies. They all have previously published on the topic and submitted individual research projects that explore the research hypothesis. The fellows come from prestigious Universities such as Princeton, Dartmouth, Rutgers, UC Santa Barbara, University of Southern Queensland, Wake Forest University, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Leibniz Universität Hannover und Universität Bielefeld.
Publications
- All Publications
2022
Katharina von Kellenbach, Matthias Buschmeier (eds.), Guilt: A Force of Cultural Transformation.
Oxford University Press: New York (2022).
Maria-Sibylla Lotter, Saskia Fischer (eds.), Guilt, Forgiveness, and Moral Repair: A Cross-Cultural Comparison.
Palgrave Macmillan: Cham (2022).
2021
Saskia Fischer, Mareike Gronich, Joanna Bednarska (eds.), Lagerliteratur – Schreibweisen, Zeugnisse, Didaktik.
Bern: Peter Lang Verlag (2021).
2020
Matthias Buschmeier (ed.), Kultur und Schuld. Special Issue KulturPoetik.
Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020).
Matthias Buschmeier, "Editorial. Kultur und Schuld".In: Kultur und Schuld. Ed. Matthias Buschmeier. Special Issue KulturPoetik. Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020), 4-9.
Matthias Buschmeier, "Gründungsfall. Zur kulturellen Funktion von Schulderzählungen: Die biblische Urfamilie".In: Kultur und Schuld. Ed. Matthias Buschmeier. Special Issue KulturPoetik. Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020), 10-26.
Susan Derwin, "The Agency of Guilt".In: Kultur und Schuld. Ed. Matthias Buschmeier. Special Issue KulturPoetik. Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020), 123-136.
Saskia Fischer, "Verwobenheit als Kern des Schreibens. Wie sich deutsche Schriftsteller nach 1945 mit Schuld und Schulddiskursen auseinandersetzten".In: Jüdische Allgemeine, No 10/20 (2020), 19.
Saskia Fischer, "'Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun?' – Schuldverdrängung und Schuldbewusstsein in Friedrich Dürrenmatts 'Der Besuch der alten Dame'".In: Kultur und Schuld. Ed. Matthias Buschmeier. Special Issue KulturPoetik. Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020), 91-107.
Ethel Matala de Mazza, "Ödipus und die Wilden. Freud über die Urgeschichte der Schuld-Kultur".In: Kultur und Schuld. Ed. Matthias Buschmeier. Special Issue KulturPoetik. Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020), 27-41.
Meinolf Schumacher, "Leerstellen der Schuld. Die Arche-Erzählung und die Frage nach der Akzeptanz des Unreinen".In: Kultur und Schuld. Ed. Matthias Buschmeier. Special Issue KulturPoetik. Journal of Cultural Poetics 1 (2020), 42-58.
Derald Wing Sue, Lisa Spanierman, Microaggressions in everyday life. 2nd edition.Hoboken, NJ: Wiley (2020).
Lisa Spanierman et al., "Detrimental Effects of Color-Blind Racial Attitudes in Preparing a Culturally Responsive Teaching".In: Journal of Career Development (2020).
2019
Nelly van Doorn-Harder, "Purifying Indonesia. Purifying Women: The National Commission for Women's Rights and the 1965-68 anti-Communist violence".
In: Purity and Impurity. Ed. Katharina von Kellenbach. Special Issue CrossCurrents 69, H. 3 (2019).
Saskia Fischer, "'Der Wunsch die Augen nicht zu öffnen' - Kunst, Medialität und Schuld in 'Die Habenichtse'".In: Der Deutschunterricht. Literaturverfilmungen der Gegenwart. Ed. S. Kaul (2019), 46–55.
Saskia Fischer, "Poetische Ritualität und Schuld im Theater nach 1945 — Nelly Sachs, Mary Wigman und Pina Bausch".In: Kunst-Rituale — Ritual-Kunst. Zur Ritualität von Theater, Literatur und Musik in der Moderne. Eds. S. Fischer et al. Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen & Neumann (2019), 39–62.
Victor Igreja, "Mozambique".In: Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice. Eds. Lavinia Stan, Nadya Nedelsky. Second and Revised Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2019), 305-311.
Victor Igreja, "Negotiating Relationships in Transition: War, Famine, and Embodied Accountability in Mozambique." Comparative Studies in Society and History 61,4 (2019), 774-804.
Pauline Collins, Victor Igreja, Patrick Danaher (eds.), The Nexus Among Place, Conflict and Communication in a Globalising World.Singapore: Palgrave (2019).
Victor Igreja, "Frames and Intersections of Studies of Place, Conflict and Communication".In: The Nexus Among Place, Conflict and Communication in a Globalising World. Eds. Pauline Collins, Victor Igreja, Patrick Danaher. Singapore: Palgrave (2019), 1–16.
Victor Igreja, Erin Baines, "Social Trauma and Recovery: Emergent Themes".In: A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa. Eds. Roy Richard Grinker, Stephen Lubkemann, Christopher Steiner, Euclides Gonçalves. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons (2019), 249-270.
Katharina von Kellenbach (ed.), Purity and Impurity.Special Issue CrossCurrents 69, H. 3 (2019).
Katharina von Kellenbach, "Introduction",In: Purity and Impurity. Ed. Katharina von Kellenbach, Special Issue CrossCurrents 69, H. 3 (2019).
Katharina von Kellenbach, "Guilt and Its Purification: The Church and Sexual Abuse".In: Purity and Impurity. Ed. Katharina von Kellenbach, Special Issue CrossCurrents 69, H. 3 (2019), 1-14.
Katharina von Kellenbach, "The Purification of Memory: Guilt as Ferment, Leaven, Compost."Satisfactio. Über (Un)Möglichkeiten von Wiedergutmachung. Eds. Julia Enxing, Dominik Gautier. Beihefte zur Ökumenischen Rundschau 122 (2019), 311-329.
Katharina von Kellenbach, "Schuld und Identität."EPD-Dokumentationen 12 (2019), 29-35.
Katharina von Kellenbach, "Die leeren Versprechungen der neuen Patriarchen".In: Feinschwarz.net: Theologisches Feuilleton. (2019) https://www.feinschwarz.net/die-leeren-versprechungen-der-neuen-patriarchen-a/ (last access, September 29, 2019)
Katharina von Kellenbach, "Jedes wir beginnt mit mir! Christ*innen gegen Antisemitismus".In: Eine Kampagne der AG Juden und Christen und des Instituts Kirche und Judentum. Deutscher Evangelischen Kirchentag: Dortmund (2019).
Maria-Sibylla Lotter, "Schuld und Identität. Wie sich eine Praxis der Aussöhnung in eine Praxis der Spaltung verwandelt".In: Identitätslinke Läuterungsagenda und ihre Auswirkung auf Migrationsgesellschaften. Ed. Sandra Kostner. Münster: Ibidem (2019), 181-208.
Maria-Sibylla Lotter, "Ich bin schuldig, weil ich bin (weiß, männlich und bürgerlich). Politik als Läuterungsdiskurs".In: Moral und Schuld: Exkulpationsnarrative in Ethikdebatten. Eds. Herwig Grimm, Stephan Schleissing. Baden-Baden: Nomos (2019), 67-86.
Angela Moré, "Die Weitergabe von Traumata und Schuldverstrickungen zwischen den Generationen".In: Praxis 108, 6 (2019), 425–430. https://doi.org/10.1024/1661-8157/a003225. (last access, September 29, 2019)
Meinolf Schumacher, "Weeds Among the Wheat: The Impurity of the Church Between Tolerance, Solace, and Guilt Denial".In: Purity and Impurity. Ed. Katharina von Kellenbach. Special Issue CrossCurrents 69, H. 3 (2019), 252-263.
Meinolf Schumacher, "'Lavabo in innocentia manus meas...' Zwischen Schuldanerkennung und Schuldabwehr: Händewaschen im christlichen Kult".In: Handgebrauch. Geschichten von der Hand aus dem Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit. Eds. Robert Jütte, Romedio Schmitz-Esser. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag (2019), 59–77.
Lisa Spanierman et al., "White Supremacy and Counseling Psychology: A Critical-Conceptual Framework".Revised and resubmitted to The Counseling Psychologist 47, 4 (2019), 478-529.
Lisa Spanierman et al., "'School Shouldn't be Something you have to Survive': Queer Women's Experiences with Microaggressions at a Canadian University".In: Journal of Homosexuality, (2019).
Valerij Zisman, "Tagungsbericht 'Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Gerechtigkeit im Strafrecht'".In: Magazin für Täter-Opfer-Ausgleich 1 (2019).
2018
Matthias Buschmeier, "Felix Culpa. Zur kulturellen Produktivkraft der Schuld".
In: Communio 47 (2018), 38-50.
Stephan Grätzel, Versöhnung: Die Macht der Sprache - Ein Beitrag zur Philosophie des Dialogs.Freiburg i. B.: Herder (2018).
Victor Igreja, "Spirit Possession".In: The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. Hilary Callan. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (2018), 1-9.
Victor Igreja, "Post-Hybridity Bargaining and Embodied Accountability in Communities in Conflict, Mozambique".In: Hybridity on the Ground in Peacebuilding and Development. Eds. Joanne Wallis, Lia Kent, Miranda Forsyth, Sinclair Dinnen, Srinjoy Bose. Canberra: Australian National University Press (2018), 163-80.
Victor Igreja, "Silence and Visual Representations of Anti-Violence Campaigns in Cosmopolitan Brisbane".In: Anthropology in Action 25 (2018), 15-28.
Victor Igreja, "'What Made the Elephant Rise Up From the Shade?' Relationships in Transition and Negotiating Silence in Mozambique".In: Truth, Silence and Violence in Emerging States. Ed. Aidan Russell. New York: Routledge (2018), 98–120.
Victor Igreja, "Negotiating Temporalities of Accountability in Communities in Conflict in Africa".In: Time and Temporality in Transitional and Post-Conflict Societies. Eds. Natascha Mueller-Hirth, Sandra Rios Oyola. London: Routledge (2018), 84–101.
Katarina von Kellenbach, "Criminal Trials as Rituals of Purification".In: Rethinking Holocaust Justice: Essays Across Disciplines. Ed. Norman Goda. New York: Berghahn (2018), 48-71.
Katharina von Kellenbach, "The Purification of Memory: A Tribute to John Pawlikowski OSM".In: Righting Relations After the Holocaust and Vatican II. Eds. Robert Cathy, Elena Procario-Foley. New York: Paulist Press (2018), 172-188.
Katharina von Kellenbach, "Zeichenhafter Umgang mit Schuld".In: Feinschwarz (2018).
Maria-Sibylla Lotter: "Der Wille zur Schuld".In: ZEIT 34 (2018).
Angela Moré, "Die Schuld der Väter (er)tragen wir (nicht). Das unheimliche Erbe und seine Folgen".In: Der Genozid an den ArmenierInnen. Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Aufarbeitung eines historischen Verbrechens gegen die Menschlichkeit. Ed. Melanie Altanian. Wiesbaden: Springer VS (2018), 111–140.
Angela Moré, "Den Zirkel der Gewalt verlassen. Möglichkeiten der Aufarbeitung von Schuld im Dienste der Prävention".In: werkblatt – Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse und Gesellschaftskritik 80, 35 (2018), 47–67.
Angela Moré, "Traumatische Verstrickungen zwischen den Generationen. Der unverarbeitete Armenier-Genozid in der Türkei und seine Folgen für die Nachkommen von Opfern und Tätern".In: Gewalt und Trauma. Direkte und transgenerationale Folgen. Eds. Heike Knoch, Winfried Kurth, Heinrich J. Reiß. Heidelberg: Mattes (2018), 209–238.
Angela Moré, "Zum psychoanalytischen Verständnis transgenerationaler Übertragungen".In: SANP (Swiss Arch Neurol Psychiatr Psychother) 169, 8 (2018), 232–240.
In progress
John Borneman, "Witnessing, Containing, Holding? The German social welfare state (Sozialstaat) and people in flight".
In: Spaces of Care. Eds. Perveez Mody, Brian Sloan, Lorraine Gelsthorpe. Oxford: Hart Publisher (in progress).
John Borneman, "The German Welfare State as a Holding Environment for Refugees: Internalized Objects, Modified Projections, Social Incorporation".In: Digesting Difference: Ethnographies of Sociocultural Incorporation in Migrant Europe . Eds. Kelly McKowen, John Borneman (in progress).
Nelly van Doorn-Harder, "Ethnographic Approaches and Limitations in Interreligious Studies".In: Interreligious Studies: Dispatches from the Field. Ed. Hans Gustafson. Waco: Baylor University Press (in progress).
Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi, "The Erotic in Foreigner Incorporation: First Encounters between Germans and Syrians".In: Digesting Difference: ethnographies of integration in Europe. Eds. John Borneman et al. London: Palgrave Press (in progress).
Stephan Grätzel, Schuld – Verstrickung und Lösung.Freiburg: Herder Verlag (in progress).
Stephan Grätzel, "Narrative Ethik in Thomas Manns Roman 'Joseph und seine Brüder' als Beitrag zur Versöhnung nach 1945" (in progress).
Katharina von Kellenbach, Composting Guilt: The Purification of Memory after Atrocity.New York: Oxford University Press (in progress).
Maria-Sibylla Lotter, "Schuld und Schuldgefühle". In: Handbuch Ethik und Psychologie.Ed. Jochen Sautermeister. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Verlag (in progress).
Maria-Sibylla Lotter, "Demütige Täter, Stolze Opfer. Zur Rolle von Stolz und Demut in politischen Schuldnarrativen".In: Religiöse Dynamiken in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Ed. Christian Wiese. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck Verlag (in progress).
Angela Moré, Erinnern als Form der Selbstvergewisserung oder: Arbeiten an und mit der Geschichte. Geleitwort zu: Anette Winkelmüller: Die Kinder der Weltkriege.Radeberg: DeBehr (in progress).
Lisa Spanierman et al., "Examination of Social Justice Behaviors: Testing an Integrated Model of Critical Consciousness".Manuscript submitted to Race and Social Problems (in progress).
Lisa Spanierman et al., "Trans-students' Experiences with Microaggressions at a Canadian University".Manuscript submitted to Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling (in progress).
Lisa Spanierman et al, "I have Strong Medicine, you see: Community Members' Responses to Racial Microaggressions".In: Journal of Counseling Psychology. Advance online publication (in progress).
Lisa Spanierman et al., "Measuring Whiteness: A systematic Review of Instruments and Call for Action".In: The Counseling Psychologist (in progress).