LFU:online

In this lecture / exercise the students should first get a comprehensive overview of the research area of non-verbal communication, which was developed in psychology, communication science and linguistics. The next step is to test the sustainability of this concept using a famous example from literature, namely Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" (1866). Since Dostoevsky's novel was filmed many times, the third step is to compare the forms of non-verbal communication described in the novel with those depicted in the film. For this purpose, a series of films are examined that are either closely based on their literary hypotext (such as Josef von Sternberg's “Crime and Punishment” (1935)) or films that only loosely refer to the novel in the sense of a “concept of independence” (Michaela Mundt). These include e.g. Aki Kaurismäki's "Rikos ja rangaistus" (1983) or Brad Anderson's "The Machinist" (2004).

The research field of non-verbal communication is a relatively young scientific discipline. The first use of the term by the psychologists Jürgen Ruesch and Weldon Kees can be dated to 1956. The importance of non-verbal communication in art - especially in literature - was therefore only examined from the early 1970s on. Barbara Korte's study "Body language in literature" (1993) represents a preliminary high point of this research. It deals with the representation of non-verbal communication in English narrative prose. In film analysis, the question of how actors communicate using body language and what they convey with it non-verbally has hardly been explored so far. But as Paul Watzlawick et al. already stated in 1969 in "Human Communication", all human behavior forms contribute in some way to the success or failure of a communication process. This also applies to the body language behavior that is expressed in art forms such as literature and film. The course therefore specifically examines works in which non-verbal communication is of essential meaning.

A general overview of the most important basic positions of non-verbal communication research and their connection to the field of intermediality will be introduced by the course leader. The viability of the theoretical approach is practically tested in the second part of the course by the students in learning groups and presentations.

In order to complete the course positively, keynote speeches must be given as part of learning groups during the semester and short papers (length approx. 4 - 5 pages) must be submitted at the end of the semester.

1. Bentele, Günter und Hess-Lüttich, Ernest W. B. (Hg.): Zeichengebrauch in Massenmedien. Zum Verhältnis von sprachlicher und nichtsprachlicher Information in Hörfunk, Film und Fernsehen. Tübingen: Niemeyer 1985. (Medien in Forschung + Unterricht, Serie A, Bd. 17)
2. Bohnenkamp, Anne (Hg.): Interpretationen. Literaturverfilmungen. Hrsg. von Anne Bohnenkamp in Verbindung mit Tilman Lang. Stuttgart: Reclam 2005.
3. Ekman, Paul and Friesen, Wallace V.: The repertoire of nonverbal behavior. categories, origins, usage and coding. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter 1969.
4. Korte, Barbara: Körpersprache in der Literatur. Theorie und Geschichte am Beispiel englischer Erzählprosa. Tübingen u.a.: Francke 1993.
5. MacFarlane, Brian: Novel to film. An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1996.