Mechthild Albert Books

Power and domination have been described and reflected upon at all times and everywhere in stories and history. But what is the specific capability of such manifestations? Are there transcultural similarities regarding the narrative presentation? What can be deduced from the analysis of macrostructures, patterns of story-telling, narrative voice(s), configuration of figures, perspectivation, or focalization regarding the conception of power and domination? What do statements in (potentially) extant framing passages have to bear on those in the main part? Researchers from European philology, history, Islamic studies and Egyptology investigate these questions, directing attention to the techniques of narration, which are used in the textual performance of power and domination.

Unter Aufgabe der strikten Entgegensetzung von ‚Personalität‘ und ‚Transpersonalität‘ von Herrschaft und des Postulats einer vorwiegend personal geprägten vormodernen Herrschaft zeigen die hier vereinten Beiträge an zahlreichen Fallbeispielen aus Asien, Ägypten und Europa das Neben- und Miteinander personaler und transpersonaler Aspekte auf. Sie fragen nach den Vorstellungen, Werten und Normen, welche die jeweiligen zeitgenössischen Leitbilder des ‚guten‘ Herrschers bestimmten und die Grundlage für die konkrete Ausübung von Herrschaft bildeten. Zudem richten die Beiträge das Augenmerk auf die Interaktion des Herrschers mit den Eliten, wodurch Prozesse der Konsensbildung und der Legitimierung herrscherlicher Macht, aber auch Dynamiken ihrer Infragestellung und ihres Verlustes greifbar werden. The contributions to this volume, which are based on numerous case studies from Asia, Egypt, and Europe, aim to overcome the rigorous opposition of personality and transpersonality and thus the postulate of a pre-modern rulership that has been considered to hinge almost exclusively on the ruler’s person by emphasizing the coexistence and concurrency of pre-modern rulership’s personal and transpersonal elements. Moreover, they discuss the ideas, values and norms which determined the respective contemporary models of the ‘good’ ruler and formed the basis for the concrete exercise of rule. As a third issue, they also focus on the interaction of the ruler with the elites, whereby processes of consensus-building and legitimization of the ruler’s power, as well as the dynamics of their questioning and loss, become tangible.