The Stuff of Narrative: New Perspectives on Literature

Die Besucher*innen können erkunden, auf welch unterschiedliche Weise Objekte Geschichten erzählen oder zum Erzählen inspirieren, wie sich Erzählstoffe im Lauf der Zeit verändern und Literatur als materielle und orale Praxis verbreitet und vermittelt wird.

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  Szene aus der Geschichte vom Prinzen Genji_Miyuki, Detail

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  Dagar Diaries

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  Chinesische Orakelknochen aus der Shang-Dynastie

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  Detail aus einem Comic von Reem Helou

The term "literature" usually conjures up images of printed books. "ErzählStoff" invites you to broaden your view: six selected exhibits - including Chinese oracle bones, a Japanese screen and a Syrian graphic novel - are used to focus on literature as a lived practice and aesthetic experience.

Visitors can explore the different ways in which objects tell stories or inspire storytelling, how narrative materials change over time and how literature is disseminated and communicated as a material and oral practice. Different scientific, curatorial and restoration approaches constantly open up new perspectives on the objects and their cultural contexts. The exhibition shows objects with a literary connection and thus sheds light on the diversity, materiality and cultural anchoring of literature.

"ErzählStoff" makes it possible to experience literature not only between book covers - sensual, constantly changing and as current as it is relevant. The accompanying program of events opens up completely new perspectives. These are explored in greater depth in discussion events with experts, workshops, artistic interventions and family-friendly formats. This creates a lively dialog between objects, research and the public, in which literature is not only read, but also experienced, questioned and understood in a new way.

The DenkRaum at the Dahlem Research Campus is funded by the Kuratorium Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

The project is being realized jointly by the Institute for Museum Research, the Ethnological Museum / Museum of Asian Art and the Cluster of Excellence Temporal Communities at Freie Universität Berlin.

A special exhibition of the Dahlem Research Campus of the National Museums in BerlinTranslated with DeepL

Runtime: Thu, 16/04/2026 to Thu, 03/09/2026

Takes place here:

• Forschungscampus Dahlem