Human Masks and Countenances of Animals. Hermeneutics of Illegible Faces

The emblematic mask which symbolises the dualism of appearance and being in Christological tradition, and the extra-linguistic countenance which in Jewish hermeneutics breaks the dichotomy of covering and disclosing, represent two seemingly contradictory traditions. This study aims to bring them together on the field of literary portraits and intends to make literary descriptions of faces as a mirror of cultural and confessional historiography readable. A particular interest is placed on those versions which undermine categorical distinctions in philosophy, such as those between humans and animals, and which render the animal view a place of alterity from where animalistic-rational aspects are questioned, which can be demonstrated by antique metamorphosis stories and the contemporary photographic literature of a W.G. Sebald.