Dorothee Kimmich presented her concept of similarity in the SFB 1288 colloquium which she suggests as a new paradigm for cultural theory. She quoted the historian Naoki Sakai in the SFB's context: "Similarity is equivocally connected with comparison."

One of the presented theses concerning the concept of similarity read to be that similarity provokes the big heuristic divisons of modernity, e.g. nature and culture. Similarity is said to be both attractive and frightening at the same time - one the one hand you have the moment of familiarity which can turn into horrible similarity on the other hand when confronted involuntarily.

The talk can be watched via the SFB's YouTube channel (in German).

Dorothee Kimmich is Professor for Cultural Literary Studies Literaturwissenschaft at the University of Tübingen and is part of the SFB's Virtual Faculty.

Photos: Rebecca Moltmann