Fata Morgana. An Essay Journey.

Torben Körschkes

”Fata Morgana. An Essay Journey” explores the optical phenomenon of the Fata Morgana and its mythical namesake, Morgain Le Fay, as a figure of thought to explore transcultural and transgeographical relationships between landscape and identity. Conceived as an essay journey with artistic interventions, Fata Morgana argues for rethinking imagined geographies against the territorial bigotry prevalent in Europe and the world, against essentialist ideas of singular or linear origins. Instead, Körschkes uses Fata Morgana as a motif, myth and method for artistic research, employing its ephemerality and “diffuse occurrences” to relocate places into other places, narratives onto other narratives, and thus brings together different spatialities, temporalities and identities into brieftopian co-existence.

Torben Körschkes

Fata Morgana

An Essay Journey

Note:

At the end of each chapter you can find a link to the next chapter. If you get lost, use the menu bar at the top to navigate the chapters. Start by clicking on the first chapter below.

I. Intro / Territorial Bigotry

II. Fata Morgana / Morgain Le Fay

III. Interlude: Traveling Mountains

IV. Of Cauldrons and Carrier Bags

V. Errant Diffusions

VI. Outro

Sources

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from German by the author.

Beissinger, Margaret / Tylus, Jane / Wofford, Susanne (Ed.). 1999. Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World. The Poetics of Community. University of California Press.

Benjamin, Walter. 2007 (1936). “Der Erzähler. Betrachtungen zum Werk Nikolai Lesskows.” In Benjamin, Walter. 2007. Erzählen. Schriften zur Theorie der Narration und zur literarischen Prosa. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Pp. 103–128.

Beyer, Andreas / Bredekamp, Horst / Fleckner, Uwe / Wolf, Gerhard (Ed.) 2018. Bilderfahrzeuge. Aby Warburgs Vermächtnis und die Zukunft der Ikonologie. Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach.

Busch, Kathrin. 2015. “Essay.” In Badura, Dubach, Haarmann et al. Künstlerische Forschung. Ein Handbuch. Zurich: Diaphanes.

Childs-Johnson, Elisabeth. 2012. “Big Ding 溶 and China Power: Divine Authority
and Legitimacy.” In Asian Perspectives 51(2): 164–220. DOI:10.1353/asi.2014.0001.

Fitzhugh Talman, Charles. 1912. “The Real Fata Morgana. What Is Known Today About the Famous Phantoms of the Calabrian Coast.” In Scientific American, April 13, 1912. Pp. 335–349.

Glissant, Édouard. 2010 (1990). Poetics of Relation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Greulich, Markus. 2021. “Among Knights and Troubadours. Courts and Court Culture.” In: Vermeer, Mark / Greulich, Markus / McInerney, Sian. 2021. The Art of Reading in the Middle Ages. https://www.europeana.eu/en/exhibitions/the-art-of-reading-in-the-middle-ages/among-knights-and-troubadours. Accessed 13.01.2025.

Johnson, Hannah. 2021. Private and Public Reading. Different Reading Practices in the Middle Ages. https://www.europeana.eu/en/stories/private-and-public-reading. Accessed 15.01.2025.

Jonak, Ulf. 2015. Architekturwahrnehmung. Sehen und Begreifen. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Körschkes, Torben. 2025. “Incomprehensibility. World-Chaos and Chaos-World.” In: Bieling, Tom / Christensen, Michelle / Conradi, Florian (Ed.) 2025. NERD – New Experimental Research in Design 3. Positions and Perspectives. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Le Guin, Ursula K. 2023 (1986). “Die Tragetaschentheorie des Erzählens.” In: Le Guin, Ursula K. 2023. Am Anfang war der Beutel. Klein Jasedow: thinkOya.

Lejeune, Rita. 1959. “The Troubadours.” In: Loomis, Roger Sherman (Ed.). 1974 (1959). Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. A Collaborative History. London: Oxford University Press. Pp. 393–399.

Loomis, Roger Sherman. 1945. “Morgain La Fee and the Celtic Goddesses.” In: Speculum. 1945. Vol. 20, No. 2. Pp. 183–203. doi.org/10.2307/2854594.

Loomis, Roger Sherman. 1959. “Morgain La Fée in Oral Tradition.” Romania, Vol. 80, No. 319 (3). Pp. 337-367.

Löw, Martina / Sayman, Volkan / Schwerer, Jona / Wolf, Hannah (Ed.) 2021. Am Ende der Globalisierung. Über die Refiguration von Räumen. Bielefeld: transcript.

Monmouth, Geoffrey of. 1973 (around 1150). Life of Merlin. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

Paton, Lucy Allen. 1903. Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance. Boston: Ginn.

Sabisch, Petra. 2022. “Relevante Praktiken der Gegenwart mit lückenhafter Infrastruktur. Ein Kommentar zu G. Maria Soltros Atopischem Manifest.” In: Friedrichs, Werner (Ed.). 2022. Atopien im Politischen. Politische Bildung nach dem Ende der Zukunft. Bielefeld: transcript.

Sims-Williams, Patrick. 1998. “Did Itinerant Bretan “Conteurs” Transmit the “Metière de Bretagne”?” Romania, Vol. 116, No. 461/462 (1). Pp. 72-111.

Soltro, G. Maria. 2022. “Atopische Politische Bildung*en | Wie wir Werden.” In: Friedrichs, Werner (Ed.). 2022. Atopien im Politischen. Politische Bildung nach dem Ende der Zukunft. Bielefeld: transcript.

Vogl, Joseph. 2003. “De-totalized Forms of Encounter.” In: Clemens, Oliver/ Fezer, Jesko/ Förster, Kim/ Hagemann, Anke/ Horlitz, Sabine/ Kühnast, Sabine/ Müller, Andreas (Hg.). 2003. An Architektur Nr. 10. Gemeinschaftsräume. Berlin: An Architektur. Translated by Matthew Gaskins.

Vollmer, Carl Gottfried Wilhelm. 1874. Dr. Vollmers Wörterbuch der Mythologie aller Völker. Stuttgart: Hoffmann.

Walker, Barbara G. 1983. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Tip

Tip