The Concept of Rhythm in the Arts ca. 1900 and Its Temporal and Cultural Implications
This project deals with the concept of rhythm in aesthetics, literature, and the visual arts around 1900. During this period, and with striking frequency, philosophers and artists referred to a notion of rhythm in order to emphasize the physical origin of aesthetic experience––in contrast to an intellectual understanding of art. Taking up this debate on rhythms and, contrary to historical approaches to aesthetics, my research attempts to unfold the latent temporal dimension of art and its experience, including cultural and non-Western concepts of time and temporality. The project also investigates the question of why the established concept of rhythm could not prevail after 1900 and whether the idea of rhythmical experience can inform current debates, e.g., discussions about “presence” in the humanities or more specific investigations into reception aesthetics.
Boris Roman Gibhardt has taught in the Departments of German Literature and General and Comparative Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin since 2015, and has been a curator at the Goethe-Nationalmuseum (Klassik Stiftung Weimar) since 2019. In 2018–19 Gibhardt was a Humboldt-Feodor-Lynen-Fellow at Harvard University (German Department); in 2015 he was a Research Fellow at Stanford University; and from 2009 to 2014 he was a member of the academic staff at the German Institute for the History of Art in Paris. He co-edits the German-French academic journal Regards Croisés. Journal d’Histoire de l’Art et d’Esthétique.
Vorgriffe auf das schöne Leben. Weimarer Klassik und Pariser Mode um 1800, Göttingen 2019; Nachtseite des Sinnbilds. Die Romantische Allegorie, Göttingen 2018; Das Auge der Sprache. Ornament und Lineatur bei Marcel Proust, Berlin 2011.
„Rhythmus“ galt um 1900 als Grundbegriff der Künste. Der aus der Antike entlehnte Begriff verbindet sich um 1900 aber mit einem auch außereuropäischen Rhythmusdenken, insbesondere mit fernöstlichen Konzepten von Zeit. Diese fanden in der deutschsprachigen Dichtung einen bislang wenig erforschten Niederschlag.