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Arts & Communication Reading Hölderlin in an exhibition

in the historical resonance space of the archive. Visitors communicated persons and objects with dimensions of
can make their own connections between the objects or space and time, causality, motivation, thematic continuity,
follow the paths of the intervention, always following the and the simulation of perception- and action-based
blue threads that the curatorial team has chosen as a design interactions, can increase these connections, with readers
leitmotif of the exhibition. Each of the suspended cards has contributing to a significant part of their understanding
an outside and an inside. On the outside are parts, mostly of the text. They extract something like meaning from
single words, of the corresponding Hölderlin quotation, the individual sentences and then assemble it, helped by
while on the inside presents the complete quotation as well their knowledge of the world as well as their cognitive
as a commentary. Two examples are further elaborated schemas, spatial mental models, and even reenactment of
as follows (the compete exhibition chapter as well as events. The reader imagines not only the communicated
the chapters “Condensing” and “Understanding” are facts but also the text itself so that there are different levels
documented in full and with illustrations of all objects in of the text while reading. In psychology, these three are
the exhibition catalog ): often studied in more detail — the text surface with all the
[6]
(i). As a correspondence to Hälfte des Lebens: In 1963, linguistic details that we represent, for example, during
Theodor W. Adorno chose in his Tübingen lecture memorization, the text base with the sense units, and the
Parataxis—zur späten Lyrik Hölderlins (Parataxis, on mental situation model to which we relate the text surface
[10]
Hölderlin’s Late Poetry), Hölderlin’s poem with its two and text base during reading . As a result, we not only
opposing stanzas as an example of an unconnected understand what is being said, but we can also imagine
juxtaposition of opposites: “Indem die Sprache die what exactly is meant.
Fäden zum Subjekt durchschneidet, redet sie für das The more we can imagine what is meant, the longer
Subjekt, das von sich aus—Hölderlin war wohl der the levels of comprehension remain in memory. The
erste, dessen Kunst das ahnte – nicht mehr reden text surface is forgotten most quickly, while the mental
kann.” (“By cutting the threads to the subject, situation model remains the longest in memory. This is
[7]
language speaks for the subject, who — Hölderlin because here we make the most own contribution and, for
was probably the first whose art suspected this — can example, also supplement with so-called inferences that
no longer speak of itself.” translated into English by are not explicitly stated there. We fill in gaps, for example,
DeepL). by motivating the actions of persons by assumed goals, by
(ii). As a correspondence to the Abendphantasie and the structuring and condensing textual information, that is, by
words “purpurne Wolken” (“purple clouds”) around reading “constructionistically.” In “minimalist” readings,
1975, Friedrich Kittler collected evidence of the colors we read quickly and with little enrichment; in “maximalist”
of the moon and clouds in literature in a box of notes. readings, we read slowly, finding pleasure or acquiring
“Purple” he found in Hölderlin’s Abendphantasie. knowledge, and with more inference, we also create more
Another moon color Kittler found in Hyperion: “wie coherence. More complicated texts with blanks are not
ein silbern Wölkchen, wallt der schüchterne Mond necessarily more difficult to understand; in some cases,
am hellen Tage vorüber.” (“Like a silver cloud, the they are even more comprehensible, to a certain extent,
shy moon waves by on a bright day,” translated into because we actively engage more [11,12] .
Englsih by DeepL; Friedrich Kittler’s file cards are in
[8]
the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach ). Textual information and inferences are continuously
and automatically checked for plausibility and validity.
8. Reading from the perspective of Different cognitive processing strategies help in this
communication psychology process, for example, microstrategies, which are directed at
details, and macrostrategies, which aim at understanding
In the psychology of communication, a text is first and the text as a whole. These macrostrategies may involve
foremost an instrument — with a text, someone wants to summarizing a text, underlining a main idea, making
communicate something to someone else and, therefore, diagrams, and thinking up questions, pictures, and
tries to control the recipient’s processes of perception and examples. The strategy we use also depends on the reading
understanding through linguistic formulations in such a goal, for example, whether we want to grasp it quickly and
way that the latter understands the intended meaning . thus “skim” it or read it selectively and scan it only for a
[9]
A text, therefore, differs from an arbitrary string of sentences specific piece of information. Against the background of
in that the sentences form meaningful connections and this psychological view of reading, it is natural to describe
are thus coherent. Linguistic design elements, such as the reading of literary texts as an artificial provocation
repetitions and logical connecting words, such as “and,” and reflection of these text comprehension processes.
“or,” and “because,” as well as contextual connections of Through a literary text, we are first and foremost not told

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1467