Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht and K. Ludwig Pfeiffer, eds., Stil. Geschichten und Funktionen eines kulturwissenschaftlichen Diskurselements

This lengthy volume (over 800 pages) is the product of a conference held in Dubrovnik in March/April 1985 titled "Style as a Historical Category." It is the third in a continuing series stemming from the biennial Dubrovnik conferences.

To describe the term "style" as problematical is a gross understatement. Nonetheless, it is a term which has been employed readily in the various disciplines of cultural studies and which has played a significant role in the research interests and discourses of these disciplines in the twentieth century. Furthermore, it has been used extensively in other academic disciplines (such as the social sciences, especially over the past decade), while being treated with a good deal of caution and skepticism by others (for example linguistics). It is precisely the broadness of its application and the plurality of practical and theoretical approaches that constitute a complexity which makes the task of the present volume a daunting and yet (in view of the recent theoretical interest in the problematics of the term in the social sciences) very necessary one.