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The Germanic review, 2012-11, Vol.87 (4), p.305-324
Ort / Verlag
Washington: Taylor & Francis Group
Erscheinungsjahr
2012
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
While lists are often viewed as merely mechanical tools of recordkeeping, this article demonstrates how Georg Christoph Lichtenberg employs enumerative strategies in his Waste Books in order to develop invention out of inventory. This article investigates a particularly puzzling list devoted to "words with ab," and more specifically, one item in this list, the curious neologism "abdenken." "Abdenken," the article argues, functions as a Denkfigur-both in the sense of a way of thinking and of a way of thinking about thinking-that is fundamental for Lichtenberg's Waste Books project. Insofar as "abdenken" emphasizes the open-endedness and material foundation of thinking, it is reminiscent of modes of thinking commonly associated with the emergence of modernity. The article ends by suggesting that Lichtenberg's strategy to seek innovation through the recombining and recycling of the alphabet can be linked to the project of "off-modernity" (Boym).