Sybille Baumbach Knihy

The concept of ‘travelling concepts’ has significantly influenced recent literary and cultural studies, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary and international exchanges. The dynamic movement of ideas across various disciplines is vital for the humanities and the study of literature and culture. This book illustrates that these journeys are complex and, while productive, can also pose considerable risks. As concepts, metaphors, and narratives adapt and transform through translation and reassessment across boundaries, they acquire new heuristic potential. The volume presents diverse approaches to the mobility of concepts and the metaphor of travel, exploring both synchronic and diachronic journeys of theories, metaphors, and research practices, as well as the movement of narratives across spatial, temporal, and medial boundaries. Sixteen contributions from various fields delve into the potential for transfers between disciplines, social subsystems, cultures, and historical periods. Readers are invited to trace these conceptual journeys and reflect on the challenges, impediments, and transformations encountered during academic, literary, and cultural transitions.