Auf eine Geschichte antworten bedeutet fragen – Überlegungen zur responsiven Literaturdidaktik am Beispiel der Erzählung Das Vamperl von Renate Welsh

Abstract

The following article explains the characteristics of a specific technique on how to talk about and act on literature in the classroom. It is called „Responsive Literaturdidaktik”. Its principles are different from those of traditional settings of literature teaching, insofar as they try to open some space to an authentic talk about literary texts, starting from a lecture that tries to enable students to hear the questions that arise from the text itself (not those which are being asked by the teacher). From this very intimate talk between reader and text, the tuition moves on to the interpersonal talk about the text, keeping in mind that the other, which can be the text or the real vis-à-vis, is inevitably marked by the traces of radical otherness. This remaining otherness cannot be reduced to full understanding, not even through the traditional categories of literary interpretation such as historical background or intertextuality. The principles and effects of this special way to talk about and act on literature will be explained through the book „Das Vamperl“, written by the Austrian writer Renate Welsh.