Die Treppe

A cultural historical and media critical study

In the central areas of the book, the reader is given an insight into the cultural and media history of the staircase. It begins with a philosophical essay on the staircase as an instrument of connection. This is followed by individual studies on the staircase motif. The focus is on examples from the arts. This results in comparisons of motifs and arguments about the migration of motifs along the stairs between old and new media. At the end there is a systematic summary of all the questions discussed. Great importance is attached to dialogue with the reader, which is also addressed graphically and specifically introduced to various subject fields, i.e. the visual complements the content of the argumentation.
 
The staircase is the continuous focus, which bundles the various aspects and intercultural discussion lines and facilitates condenser content. The reader is thus involved in the staircase study in a step-by-step process. In the alternation of motifs from the “Madonna of the Staircase” to the Staircase of Understanding, from section to section, there is an up and down like on a real spiral staircase that leads to heights and depths or culminates in spiral-shaped superimpositions, which throw light, among other things, on the development of the double helix. Thus the staircase is exemplary for the technical consciousness of man in the world for his position in evolution. With this wide understanding using the staircase as an example, the reader can, for example, critically classify the idea of the progression ladder. Sitting at the very top of the rung of the cosmic ladder, he can also consider a disconnection from here and now and there. The metaphor of the staircase is necessary in order to reach a very different level of reality, an event that nature does not yet know.

Paperback: 410 pages
Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann Verlag, 2015
Language: german
ISBN-10: 382605525X
ISBN-13: 978-3826055256