New Objectivity" research project (completed)
New Objectivity" research project (completed)
DFG project Ralf Grüttemeier: "New Objectivity"
Following the exhibition of the same name in Mannheim in 1925, New Objectivity quickly established itself in other areas of art such as literature, architecture, music and photography. It also spread to other countries. The Netherlands stands out in particular, as the loan translation Nieuwe Zakelijkheid emphasises. However, the image of this concept of style (Müller-Seidel: if that is what it is) in literary studies is still a problem in both countries, partly because of the ideological and poetological heterogeneity of the authors and texts covered by it and the involvement of many literary historians in the norms of the movement's contemporary competitors. Against this background, the project carried out here adopts a new approach, which was trialled in an anthology (Grüttemeier, Beekman & Rebel 2013) and has now been systematically tackled on the basis of the corpus of literature from the Netherlands, which is easy to delineate in terms of scope: Nieuwe Zakelijkheid is analysed as a positioning strategy(sensu Bourdieu).
The project examines the functions of the term and concept of Nieuwe Zakelijkheid in the contemporary struggle for positions in the Dutch literary field, which was only established at the beginning of the 20th century. The Delpher project(KB Den Haag), which aims to make the largest possible number of Dutch daily newspapers searchable online, is used in particular. The use and functions of the term and concept in journalistic debates on literature and art were systematically analysed and related to the known positions of the supposedly most influential critics (including Braak, Marsman and van Vriesland) and authors (including Last, Revis, Stroman and Wagener as well as Bordewijk and Kuyle). Above all, it was analysed to what extent the negative assessment of the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, which quickly became dominant not only in literature but in all artistic disciplines, must be seen against the background of the relative autonomy of the literary field that had just been gained (cf. Dorleijn/van Rees 2006). This is indicated in particular by the fact that, from the perspective of central actors in the literary field, the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid deviated in many aspects from established autonomisation tendencies in the field and could thus become a target for heteronomy criticism (e.g. proximity to journalism, to documentary procedures, to fashion, etc.). The results of this sub-project can be found in Janka Wagner's dissertation.
Towards the end of the project, the systematic results obtained from the Netherlands were discussed at an international conference, in particular with colleagues from German studies, and tested for their international applicability. The result of this sub-project was the anthology Neue Sachlichkeit im Kontrast - Deutschland und die Niederlande.
DFG project Ralf Grüttemeier: "New Objectivity - English summary"
After its launch with an exhibition in Mannheim in 1925, Neue Sachlichkeit spread quickly from painting to other art forms such as literature, architecture, music and photography, but also to other countries. The Netherlands were prominent in these dynamics, as the literal translation Nieuwe Zakelijkheid indicates. However, what literary historians mean with this stylistic notion (Müller-Seidel: if it is one) is still not clear in both Germany and the Netherlands, due among other things to the ideological and poetic heterogeneity of the authors and texts that were generally related to it and the fact that many scholars turned out to be biased by the norms of its contemporary opponents. Against this background, an innovative approach was implemented here by analysing the notion of Nieuwe Zakelijheid as a positioning strategy(sensu Bourdieu). This approach, after having been tested in different pilot-studies (see Grüttemeier, Beekman & Rebel 2013), was systematically applied to the well delineated Dutch case in this project.
More specifically, the project focussed on the functions of the notion and the concept Nieuwe Zakelijkheid in the fight for positions in the 1920s and 30s in the literary field of the Netherlands. Especially the Delpher-tool(KB Den Haag) will be used for the analysis, since it aims at offering a significant and still growing number of Dutch newspapers for a full-text-online search. The uses and functions of the term and the concept Nieuwe Zakelijkheid in journalistic literature- and arts-debates were analysed and related to the well-known views of the supposedly most influential critics (among others ter Braak, Marsman and van Vriesland) and authors of the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid (among others Last, Revis, Stroman and Wagener, but also Bordewijk and Kuyle). The central conclusion was that the negative judgement on the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, which quickly became dominant in the realm of literature (but also in other arts), can be explained by the fact that the literary field had grown relatively autonomous only shortly before (cf. Dorleijn/van Rees 2006). The pilot-studies mentioned above (Grüttemeier, Beekman & Rebel 2013) is in line with this result: according to central actors in the literary field, the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid seemed to oppose tendencies towards growing autonomisation, among other things by its closeness to journalism, to documentary writing, to fashion etc.. Therefore Nieuwe Zakelijkheid became the prime target for the advocates of the autonomisation of the literary field. A more detailed account of this part of the project can be found in the dissertation by Janka Wagner.
The systematic results gained in the proposed project were discussed in its third year in an international conference with colleagues from Germanistik, in order to reflect the result's relevance in international perspective. This lead to the volume Neue Sachlichkeit im Kontrast (2021).