Concept

Reflecting on the theoretical and analytical potential of the concepts ‘text’ and ‘action’ has a long tradition. From Rhetoric, Poetics and Ethics to the paradigms of ‘culture as text’ and ‘culture as action’ established in cultural studies research, these two concepts have been given a theoretical and methodological profile in numerous scientific disciplines and research contexts. This profile has shaped them into ‘key concepts’ for the investigation of a broad spectrum of transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary questions. Thus, ‘text’ and ‘action’ play a central role in different disciplines from a scientific historical and theoretical perspective, whether as objects themselves (of language and literature theory, of meta-historiography and meta-ethnography, of action, of practice and performance theory, etc.), as phenomena to be examined (in literature, art and everyday culture, in religious, legal or ethical contexts), as methodological terms of analysis or media and instruments of research.

Based on a discussion of the subject-specific concepts and uses of the concepts ‘text’ and ‘action’, their interdisciplinary connectivity is explored and the resulting insights from the interdisciplinary perspective is made usable for specific cultural studies fields of investigation within the scope of the doctoral thesis projects.