"Unverlöschliche Merkmale menschlichen Willens" : Heinrich Wuttke und die Geburt der Schrift aus dem Geist der Tätowierung
Journal
Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur
ISSN
0026-9271
ISSN-Digital
1934-2810
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2010-10-21
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
In 1872, Heinrich Wuttke publishes a History of Writing in which he presents tattooing as the earliest human practice of writing. Wuttke's reasoning, grounded in the signs' endurance "for life" as they are applied to the body as "inextinguishable marks of human will," contradicts the physical fragility of the human body as well as the sources he actually quotes from. His argument fits into the larger context of a debate about the connection between the human body and the sign system of written language, which attributes special significance to the tattoo within a cultural poetology of modern Western society.
Language
German
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
University of Wisconsin Press
Publisher place
Wisconsin
Volume
102
Number
3
Start page
340
End page
359
Pages
20
Official URL
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
69777
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
Unverloeschliche-Merkmale66.pdf
Size
3.51 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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