The historical and systematic study of ‚knowledge‘ as a central concept of scholarship and of the modern knowledge society as well as the medial representation of knowledge and knowledge transfer are in the centre of the research bridge HEiKAexplore with the topic “Text Worlds and Knowledge Research” and eligible for the forthcoming HEiKA project call. Questions concerning narratology as well as research on fiction and rhetoric might be of special importance:
What kind of knowledge is transferred by narrative textes? How can the relation between knowledge and fiction be described? How are rhetorical techniques, like the use of metaphors, helpful to the accessibility and transfer of knowledge? Which change of meaning do topoi like the robot, the artificial human or the cyborg undergo until present age?
The historic transformations of knowledge claims in different cultural situations, forms of presentation, production, discussion, distribution, reception and canonisation of knowledge might, among others, be investigated in the context of the research bridge. However, the research on knowledge does not only encompass academic and theoretical knowledge, but also everyday and practical applications of knowledge. The relation between text and image plays a crucial role in this context, connecting the media history of the eras before and after the “Gutenberg galaxy”, the pre-modern period and present age. Also, questions on forms and fields of alternative or uncertain knowledge are of central interest.