Ein Autor von ›hypertropher Virilität‹. Geschlecht in der Musil-Rezeption der 1920er und 1930er Jahre

Adopting "The Man Without Qualities" as a decisively masculine novel, contemporary literary criticism passed on a trope with which reviewers such as Alfred Döblin, Robert Müller and Franz Blei had already characterised Musil’s earlier texts. The reviews of the novel are therefore typical of how evaluations in terms of originality in the literary-critical and poetological debates of the 20s and 30s were regularly translated into the established gender hierarchy. The need to make such judgements can be seen as much as the symptom of a modern consciousness of crisis in masculinity as the hyper-athletics of the novel’s hero himself and the pitiful figure cut by the other men in "The Man Without Qualities".

Strategies of Active Dissemination of Workplace Health Promotion

Purpose – A growing body of literature provides evidence for the efficacy of workplace health promotion (WHP). However, little is known about effective dissemination strategies for WHP interventions. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a WHP agency in Zurich, Switzerland, used bulk mailings, information events, telephone marketing and free initial consultations for the large-scale geographic marketing of WHP services, with a focus on tobacco prevention (TP). Design/methodology/approach – To analyze the number of companies responding positively to solicitation, examine the predictors of positive responses and explore the reasons for negative responses, the authors used both quantitative (e.g. a standardized questionnaire) and qualitative (telephone interviews) methods. Findings – The results show that except for telephone marketing (69 percent), the success rates of dissemination activities were very low (3-9 percent). Predictors for a positive response were institutionalization of WHP, the representative’s personal concern about TP, and problems with environmental tobacco smoke within the company. The most prominent reason for a negative Response was that the companies had already implemented TP measures by themselves and needed no further external support. Practical implications – It is suggested that TP was the wrong emphasis for a WHP program to be disseminated at that particular time, because a law on protection from passive smoking was introduced in Switzerland shortly afterwards. Originality/value – The study examines dissemination strategies under real-life Consulting conditions. It builds on on a large sample of companies and uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods. It reports specific numbers and success rates of marketing activities and thereby contributes to the knowledge about an important issue for intervention planning in the field of WHP.

Evaluation of leaders – does gender still matter?

Purpose: Leadership positions are still stereotyped as male, especially in male-dominated fields such as STEM. Therefore, women in such positions run the risk of being evaluated less favorably than men. Our study investigates how female and male leaders in existing teams (engineering project) are evaluated, and how these evaluations change over time. Design/Methodology: Participants worked in 45 teams to develop specific engineering projects. Evaluations of 45 leaders (33% women) by 258 team members (39% women) were analyzed, that is, leaders’ self-evaluation and their evaluation by team members. Results: Although female and male leaders did not differ in their self-evaluations at the beginning of the project, female leaders evaluated themselves better within time. However, team members evaluated female leaders better than male leaders at the beginning of the project. These gender differences disappeared over the time. Limitations: It should be replicated in a non-student sample. Implications: The results show that female leaders entering a male-dominated field (engineering) are evaluated better by team members than male leaders at the beginning of the team work, in line with the ‘shifting standard model’ (Biernat & Fuegen, 2001). While the initial impression formation of female and male leaders is influenced by category membership, its impact decreases over time as a consequence of individualization (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990); this results in similar evaluations over time. Originality: To our knowledge this is the first study to systematically test perceptions of change in the evaluation over time of female and male leaders in natural setting.

William Harvey revisited

William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood is often described as a product of the Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century. Modern research has, however, shown thatHarvey followed the Aristotelian research tradition and thus tried to reveal the purpose of the organs through examination of various animals. His publication of 1628 has to be read as an argument of natural philosophy, or, more precisely, as a series of linked observations, experiments and philosophical reasonings from which the existence of circulation has to be deduced as a logical consequence. Harvey did not consider experiments as superior to philosophical reasoning nor intended he to create a new system of medicine. He believed in the vitality of the heart and the blood and rejected Francis Bacon's empirism and the mechanistic rationalism of Descartes. Harvey's contribution and originality lied less in his single observations and experiments but in the manner how he linked them with critical reasoning and how he accepted, presented and defended the ensuing radical findings.

The Vulnerable Text. Verwundbarkeit als textuelles Phänomen in Wolframs ›Parzival‹

Intertextuality imposes vulnerability – unter diesem Motto entwickelt der Renaissance-Forscher Thomas M. Greene die These, dass Texte im Zuge von Prozessen der Übertragung und Aneignung ‚verwundbar’ werden (Thomas M. Greene, The vulnerable text, New York 1986). Die so verstandene ‚Verwundbarkeit’ sei insbesondere ein Symptom vormoderner Textualität, die Texte zumeist ‚aus zweiter Hand’ produziere und den Begriff der ‚Originalität’ noch nicht kenne: „Part of the text’s vulnerability lies in its dependence on second hand signifiers, a vulnerability aggravated in a culture which does not yet fetishize originality.“ Während Greenes Ansatz in der Altgermanistik bereits im Hinblick auf die zwischen der Eigengesetzlichkeit vormoderner Texte und deren philologischer Erschließung bestehende Spannung zur Anwendung gebracht und problematisiert wurde (so von Christian Kiening für den ›Ackermann‹: Schwierige Modernität, Tübingen 1998), harrt er in Bezug auf das Verständnis von Intertextualität noch der altgermanistischen Auseinandersetzung. Diese versucht der eingereichte Vorschlag mit einem Fallbeispiel in Gang zu bringen. Als Textgrundlage werden Chrétiens ›Perceval ou le Conte du Graal‹ und dessen Aneignung durch Wolfram von Eschenbach gewählt, dies im Blick auf die Anfortas- und Sigune-Handlung (was es ermöglicht, den ›Titurel‹ mit einzubeziehen). Der Beitrag geht (im Anschluss an Jean Fourquet, Wolfram d’Eschenbach et le Conte del Graal, Paris 1938, 21966) davon aus, dass Wolfram die Bücher III bis VI des ›Parzival‹ (Jugendgeschichte bis zu Kundries Verfluchung wegen der unterlassenen Mitleidsfrage) nach einer handschriftlichen Vorlage des französischen Textes gestaltete, die ihm nach Abschluss dieses Teils abhanden kam. Für die Anfertigung der übrigen Bücher dürfte Wolfram eine anders geartete handschriftliche Vorlage zur Verfügung gehabt haben, was zur Überarbeitung eines bereits in Umlauf befindlichen deutschsprachigen Textes führte, die sich noch in Fassungsvarianten der Überlieferung wiederspiegelt. Aufgrund veränderter intertextueller Relationen wird also Wolframs eigener Text im Zuge der Redaktion ‚verwundbar’. Dieser Sachverhalt soll an Varianzen der Anfortas-Handlung aufgezeigt werden, wie sie insbesondere zwischen Buch V (Parzivals erster Besuch auf der Gralburg) und Buch IX (Parzivals Aufklärung durch den Einsiedler Trevrizent) fassbar werden. Der wunde Anfortas kann dabei auf Handlungsebene als Prototyp der Verletzbarkeit schlechthin gelten – einer Verletzbarkeit, die mit jener des Textes interagiert. Mit in diese Perspektive einbezogen werden sollen Elemente der Sigune-Handlung. Der Vorlagenwechsel veranlasst Wolfram auch im Hinblick auf den Kampfestod von Sigunes Geliebtem Schionatulander (bei Chrétien sind beide Figuren namenlos) zu den erwähnten Adaptationen und hat wohl seinerseits die Entstehung des ›Titurel‹ motiviert, wo die Verletzbarkeit im Umgang mit textlichen ‚Vorlagen’ sogar thematisiert wird: Sigune zerschürft ihre Hände beim Versuch, das beschriftete Brackenseil zu behalten. Das Paradox der ›Titurel‹-Dichtung besteht dabei darin, dass die erwähnte Szene und die darin beschriebene Verwundbarkeit der Figur eine Vorlage thematisiert, die der Text selbst gerade nicht hat. Denn der ›Titurel‹ dürfte unabhängig von einer konkreten Quelle, wie sie Chrétiens ›Perceval‹ darstellt, entstanden sein und besitzt damit gerade jene ‚Originalität’, die Greene im Rahmen seines Konzepts von ‚vulnerabilty’ vormodernen Texten abspricht.