Das bewaffnete Auge :

Zur poetischen Metaphorik von Mikroskop und Guckkasten

Abstract

In this paper the microscope and peep-show of the 18th century are presented as opposing poetic metaphors. The optical enlarger enables us to see the world in the smallest detail. A language that does justice to the description and interpretation of this hitherto undiscovered world of pictures and structures must first be found. The observer’s perception fluctuates between scepticism and astonishment, and at the same time he understands that deep insights might also mean a narrow and even exclusive perspective. The peep-show offers the opposite principle: In this magic box details are synthesized and single images combine to form a continuous story. This ‘tele-vision’ of the early modern era brings distant worlds to every small town. It functions as a metaphor for the inventiveness of man, for memory as well as for associations created in the imagination. In short: the microscope becomes an metaphorical instrument of poetic analysis whereas the peep-show provides a tool for the smooth combination of successive images which then find their optical realisation in the medium of film.