„Literarische Kunst“

Abstract

This paper analyses the perceptions of the year 1913 by a direct witness and exact observer of time and literary life: The philologist Richard Moritz Meyer is represented in the “Gesamtbild” issued by David Sarason The Year 1913 with the entry “Literary Art”; and here he developed some insightful and provocative perspectives. The paper explores the conditions and consequences of his observations, oscillating between literary criticism and philological and historiographical generalization. This is followed by systematic considerations on the problem of literary and cultural historical observation. Here I will discuss the potentials and risks of a synchronistic perspective in terms of temporal proximity.