Balance
The metaphor of balance and its various manifestations in art, literature, and philosophy has only recently attracted the increasing interest of the humanities. From antiquity to the present, forms and figures of equilibrium are "among the basic elements of cultural experience and its reflection" (Goebel/Zumbusch 2020, 7; trsl. is our own). Aristotle's theory of the 'golden mean' (mesotes) is a well-known example in the history of thought in which the principles of middle, mean, and balance are elevated to a paradigm of how to see the world (Goebel/Zumbusch 2020). The omnipresence of the metaphor of balance is evident not only in the doctrine of the 'mean' and its physiological, ethical, and political dimensions (Grund 2020), but also in its persistence in economics, physiology, or moral theory of the early and high Middle Ages (Kaye 2014). The underlying Aristotelian concept of the 'golden mean' is only one manifestation of balance, which is, generally, understood as a metaphor and figure of thought in a variety of discourses across times and cultures. Moreover, the notion of excess often serves to convey implicit notions of balance and moderation.
Two aspects of balance are particularly relevant: (1) a state of (dis)equilibrium that exists at a particular point in time. (2) a process of balancing that is often associated with an element of the precarious, fluctuating, or changeable (Kaye 2014, 4; cf. Grund 2021, 116–127). Beyond its semantic correspondence in word, text, and image, the figure of balance also manifests itself in an 'inner sense' of equilibrium, – "an apprehension of how things properly fit together and work together in the world" (Kaye 2014, 2). This notion of consistency and coherence reveals not only an anthropological but also a decidedly aesthetic feature of balance.
Robert Kirstein and Simon Grund are members of the PhD Network: Theory of Balance - Forms and Figures of Equilibrium in Media, Art, and Literary Studies.
Bibliography (selected)
On Theories of Balance:
- Goebel, Eckard/Zumbusch, Cornelia (eds.) (2020), Balance. Figuren des Äquilibriums in den Kulturwissenschaften (= Studien aus dem Warburghaus 23), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
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Grund, Simon (2021), Gleichgewicht als Ideal – Die Idee der Gütergemeinschaft in Thomas Morus’ Utopia und ihre ethischen und anthropologischen Implikationen, in: Lukas Müsel/Matthias Röck (eds.), Ökonomisierte Welten: Im Spannungsfeld von Balance und Disbalance. Literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftliche Betrachtungen ökonomisch bedingter Ausbalancierungsprozesse, Frankfurt a.M. u.a.: Peter Lang, 97–134.
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Kaye, Joel (2014), A History of Balance, 1250–1375. The Emergence of a New Model of Equilibrium and Its Impact on Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Kister, Aglaia (2020), Fragile Balance. Schwindelerfahrungen und Gleichgewichtsideale im Werk Thomas Manns (= Thomas Mann Studien 56), Frankfurt a.M.: Vittorio Klostermann, 11–25.
- Müsel, Lukas/Röck, Matthias (eds.) (2021), Ökonomisierte Welten: Im Spannungsfeld von Balance und Disbalance. Literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftliche Betrachtungen ökonomisch bedingter Ausbalancierungsprozesse, Frankfurt a.M. u.a.: Peter Lang.
On Balance in Ancient Texts:
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Gibson, Roy K. (2007), Excess and Restraint. Propertius, Horace and Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement 89), London: Institute of Classical Studies.
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Grund, Simon (2020), Der Weg der ,goldenen Mitte‘ – Aristoteles‘ Lehre der μεσότης (mesotes) und ihre Bedeutung für die Daseinsmetapher der Balance, in: Eckard Goebel/Cornelia Zumbusch (eds.), Balance. Figuren des Äquilibriums in den Kulturwissenschaften, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 35–56.
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Harrison, Stephen (2020), How to Be Content. An Ancient Poet’s Guide for an Age of Excess, Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
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Kirstein, Robert (2022), Balance and Excess in Ovid's Pygmalion-Story, in: Tzounakas, Spyridon/Alekou, Stella/Harrison, Stephen (eds.), The Reception of Ancient Cyprus in Western Culture, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 87–101. (in preparation)
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Konstan, David (2014), Beauty. The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea, Oxford: Oxford University Press.