Furthermore, an inventory of the relevant Slavic conceptions for determining the aesthetic value of literary texts was undertaken. Here, the relevant conceptions of Mikhail Bakhtin (monological vs. dialogical constitution of value), Roman Ingarden (phenomenology of value) and Jan Mukařovský (functional view of value) were reconstructed, compared and questioned as to their usefulness for an analytical model of the description of literary values. In the next step, an analytical model consisting of nine components was designed on the basis of the aforementioned prerequisites. The first three components concern the instances of valorisation, i.e. the possible axiomatic subjects and addressees in addition to the obligatory object. The next group (4-6) refers to the specific modality of valorisation, i.e. it comprises value criteria, type of valorisation and type of valorisation. Finally, the last group (7-9) contextualises the evaluation by embedding it in an evaluation order, a situation and a field. 1. person(s) being evaluated (patiens of the evaluation) 2. evaluator(s) (agens of the evaluation) 3. addressee of the evaluation (intentional recipient of the evaluation) .................................................................................................................................................... 4. basis of the evaluation (criterion of the evaluation) 5. type of evaluation (positive/neutral/negative, absolute/relative, subjective/objective) 6. genre of evaluation (epistemic, ethical, aesthetic, ludic, etc. evaluation) .................................................................................................................................................... 7. valuation order (ambivalence, heterovalence, equivalence or invalence) 8. valuation situation (monological or dialogical valuation) 9. valuation field (relationship structure of the valuation: relationship to other values) ..................................................................................................................................................... With a view to diachrony, a global cultural-historical sequence of value dominance was developed from archaic, pre-literate culture to postmodernism, which proceeds in the dominance stages of ambivalence → heterovalency → equivalence → invalence. In individual chapters, examples of cultural stages such as myth, the East Slavic Middle Ages, modern times and the present day demonstrate the functioning of the respective axiomatic dominance. Furthermore, relevant historical value breaks such as the emergence of individual authorship (example Simeon Polockij), alternating canon formation (example Puškin), value genre change through secularisation (example Chlebnikov) as well as value transformation in intermedial and intercultural contexts (example: Aleksandr Bek: Russian novel → Heiner Müller: German drama) were used. In the monograph "Sirens and Comets", Grübel has provided a systematic-diachronic reconstruction of the history of valorisation based on two motif histories for the cultural motif "water woman" and the natural motif "hair star". The twelve-year project of a dialogue-based literary axiology was completed in 2002 with the publication of Grübel's monograph "Literaturaxiologie. Zur Theorie und Geschichte des ästhetischen Wertes in slavischen Literaturen" (771 pp.). It has been recognised in six international reviews as a "milestone in the history of literary value theory" (Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie, 2004). This basic concept of a communicative theory of value has since been recognised in handbooks such as "Semiotik/Semiotics. Ein Handbuch zu den zeichentheoretischen Grundlagen von Natur und Kultur" (de Gruyter, 1996), "Handbuch der sprachwissenschaftlichen Russistik und ihrer Grunddisziplinen" (Harrassowitz 1999), "Grundzüge der Literaturwissenschaft" (Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 6th edition 2004) and textbooks such as "Orientierung Literaturwissenschaft" (Rowohlt 2001). It should also characterise the literary axiology in "BA Literaturwissenschaft. Ein Lehrbuch", which will be published by Rowohlt in 2005. In the course of the 1990s, the project was presented and discussed in its various aspects at eight international conferences and repeatedly used in courses (also on literary didactics in the context of teacher training). In 2005, a Russian translation of Grübel's "Literary Axiology" will be published by the St Petersburg publishing house Akademičeskij proekt. **********************************************************

International conference "Dar i žertva"

The conference "Gift and Sacrifice in Russian Modernist Culture", which was organised from 2-4 December 2004 with the participation of Slavists from six countries and funded by the DFG, linked the aspect of cultural axiology with that of Russian modernism (the anthology will be published in 2005 in the Oldenburg Slavic series).