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2003
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(2003): Defining dirt. Three early modern views of obscenity. In: TEXTUAL PRACTICE 17 (2), S. 253-275
Abstract: This essay examines the workings of bad language in the early modem period, along with its social and political contexts - why and under what circumstances some words were deemed inappropriate for polite or moral discourse and literature. In early modern English, words such as "shit' or "fuck' were not considered "swearing', but rather occupied a separate category of "wanton' or "obscene' language. Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Governour , Desiderius Erasmus' De Copia and George Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie pay particular attention to this category. They investigate it from different perspectives, but reach similar conclusions: obscene words have an offensive power in excess of their literal meaning, exposing body parts and actions that should be concealed to a greater degree than do their more decorous synonyms. These texts also agree that the rules of decorum which govern obscenity are extremely flexible, so much so that obscene words may be the most useful and even the most appropriate terms in certain circumstances.
Keywords: Angemessenheit, Appropriateness, Appropriateness of inappropriateness, decorum, Fehlverhalten, fluchen, Grenzen, Grenzüberschreitung, Gruppenverhalten / Joint Action, Höflichkeitsforschung, (Im)Politeness Research, Inappropriateness, Interaktion, Konventionen, Literaturwissenschaft, Modelle/Theorien, Normen, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Obszönität, Respekt, Sprache, Sprachgebrauch, Status / biologische Marker, swearing, Umgangsformen, Unangemessenheit 1971
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(1971): That's Interesting!, S. 309-344
Abstract: QU E S T I O N : How do theories which are generally considered interesting differ from theories which are generally considered non-interesting ? ANSWER: Interesting theories are those which deny certain assumptions of their audience, while noninteresting theories are those which arm certain assumptions of their audience. This answer was arrived at through the examination of a number of famous social, and especially sociological, theories. That examination also generated a systematic index of the variety of propositional forms which interesting and non-interesting theories may take. The fertility of this approach suggested a new field be established called the Sociology of the Interesting, which is intended to supplement the Sociology of Knowledge. This new field will be phenomenologically oriented in so far as it will focus on the movement of the audience’s mind from one accepted theory to another. It will be sociologically oriented in so far as it will focus on the dissimilar base-line theories of the various sociological categories which compose the audience. In addition to its value in interpreting the social impact of theories, the Sociology of the Interesting can contribute to our understanding of both the common sense and scientific perspectives on reality.
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