Fictitious entry

A bogus lexicon item also Nihilartikel called (from the Latin nihil, nothing ') or submarine, is a fictitious entry in an encyclopedia about people or things that exist outside of the lexicon and not just as fiction. It is not possible to be recognized as such by the reader. Even fictitious details in otherwise relevant articles can be referred to in this sense as submarines.

This creates a paradoxical situation of communication: To look up something in the dictionary, you usually need a reference from other contexts that have their origin outside the lexicon. In a fictional Lemma such references can not exist. The article is therefore found in the ideal case, only randomly ( Serendipity ). There are, however, easier -to-find fake products, which arise when a plausible Lemma an aberrant entry is made ​​. A special case of such articles is the assumption or conversion of fictional terms or names of fictional literature in the ( non-fiction ) lexicon, such as morning star known nasobem or Steinlaus by Loriot.

The nature and essence of bogus products

It is not always easy to recognize a fake article as such. This is especially true when the article appears about in several encyclopaedias and will continue. In such a case, the entries in different dictionaries the authenticity of registration based and pretend that there is actually the object described.

Uncovering bogus articles often also belongs to the journalistic game of dictionary editors and publishers. This game can in some cases also in other publications - continue as a parody or satire science - as well as encyclopedias.

About undiscovered fake products - especially in older works - can only speculate. " Insiders suspect that each lexicon contains incorrect keywords. "

The (stylistic ) span the non-uniform in appearance texts moves between parody or travesty and the imitative pastiche, which is not seen through under certain circumstances. The proportion of recognizable elements of parody notation can be very different. This also results in a different size difference to conventional, sincere lexicon entries. In a fictitious article in the schematism of the text type lexical entry usually remains untouched.

In lexical entries are biographical articles literary texts most similar. This may also be the reason that among the known bogus articles biographical articles are particularly well represented.

Since the illegal copying of entire lexicons, which are then published under a different title and in another language, even the fake items are copied, they can also serve as plagiarism traps to detect copyright violations ( "errors are copyright" ).

Classification in literary text genres

For a more extensive classification of fake products may Umberto Eco's lecture for a semiological guerrilla (New York 1967) should be taken as a starting point. Here, a connection could be made to the Luther Blissett fakes.

The definition of such forgeries is also characteristic of fake products. However, the intentions of going to fake articles hardly on the level of ( insider ) jokes (for example in the dictionary editors, and for some of the readers ) addition:

" A good Fake owes its effect to the interaction of imitation, invention, distortion and exaggeration of the prevailing forms of speech. It imitates the voice of power by perfectly possible to talk undetected for a limited period on their behalf and with their authority [ ... ]. The aim is to [ ... ] trigger a communication process in which - often just by the (intended) detection of the counterfeiting -. Faked the structure of the communication situation itself becomes the subject "

Related text types

Unlike fake articles that are incorrect information in a user lexicon, there are also literary lexicon - fictions, similar to the entry " Uqbar " in The Anglo - American Cyclopaedia (New York, 1917), which is also present and absent, and Articles a First Encyclopaedia of Tlön, Vol XI, Hlaer to Jangr that represent for the narrator something much more valuable and more difficult as "the summary description of the wrong country," he " in one volume a certain pirated encyclopedia " "discovered" had.

Bogus products differ from its form as a dictionary or encyclopedia articles with satirical writing over other media rather by their character as contraband. However, encyclopedias or dictionaries can serve as a satirical bulk forms. An example of this is Ambrose Bierce, whose bitter lexicon and dictionary definitions published since 1881 in the satirical weekly The Wasp (San Francisco). Later collected in other newspapers, and finally as The Cynic 's Word Book ( 1906) and The Devil's Dictionary ( 1911). In Bierce the authors of dictionaries and encyclopedias do not come off well: " lexicographer, subst.masc. A pest, [ ... ] "

An interesting variant of the fake article contains a written by the Polish science fiction author Stanisław Lem collection of prefaces future, yet unwritten books. Posted already in 1971, the band Imaginary size describes books that are supposedly appeared in the year 2009 to 2029 ( the time of printing, so 38-58 years ago ). Most notable is the preface to Vestrands Extelopädie in 44 magnet volumes is from the year 2011. Devised in times long before the PC and the Public Internet, today's online encyclopedias with regular updates, the global spread and constant improvements are anticipated quite aptly, also is a text sample pages 871-880 to " Prolepsie " to " proof " the seriousness including some graphics submitted with keywords of " Proffertine ".

Localities

Fictitious Encyclopedia articles on objects that do not exist, or existing, but non-specialist topics in real reference works:

• Apopudobalia In: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider ( eds.): Brill's New Pauly. Encyclopedia of antiquity. Antiquity Volume I. Stuttgart 1996, Sp 895

• In: MGG = The music past and present. General Encyclopedia of Music founded by Friedrich Blume ed. Louis Finscher. People Part 1 2nd edition. Kassel etc. 1999 Sp 1551ff.

• In: Encyclopedia of Early Christian Literature ( LACL ). 3rd enlarged edition. Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2002, p 183
• With reference to the LACL there is an entry of Dadophoros of Salamis in: Metzler Lexikon Antiquity, 2nd edition, 2006, p 126 ( not in the first edition of 2000 ).

• In: dtv -Lexikon, 1997 edition

• In: Hartmut O. hackers, Kurt -H. Stapf (ed.): cod. Psychology Dictionary. 14th edition. Bern 2004, p 238

• In: Brockhaus encyclopedia. Volume 12, 21st edition. Mannheim 2006, p 485 ( illustration on page 487).

• In: Buchta et al. (Ed.): The Second STEX: Basic knowledge of clinical medicine for exams and practice. 1st 2nd edition. Springer, Heidelberg / Berlin 2002/2004, ISBN 3-540-41847-4, Page 683 / 684th

• In: Jürgen Falbe, Manfred Regitz (ed.): Rompp - Chemie-Lexikon. 9th edition. Stuttgart 1990.

• In: Pschyrembel dictionary naturopathy and alternative healing methods. Edited by the editorial staff of the publisher dictionary under the direction of Helmut Hildebrandt. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, p 167

• In: Werner Fuchs -Hein Ritz et al: Dictionary of Sociology [ from EA 1973 ]. 4th edition. VS -Verlag for the Social Sciences, Wiesbaden 2007, p 397

• In: Thomas Staedtler: Encyclopedia of psychology. Dictionary. Manual. Study book. Stuttgart 1998, p 710 ( = Kroner Pocket Edition Vol 357).

• In: Klaus Schubert, Martina Klein: The Political Lexicon. Concepts, facts, connections. Bonn 2011. Pp. 215f.

• In: Encyclopedia Philosophy and Theory, 1995, and New German Biography, 2001.

• In: Historical Dictionary of rhetoric. Volume 7 Tübingen 2005 [ based on a Greek vase image is claimed that the ancient Concerning operative already on Electronic laptops ]

• In: Encyclopedia of the history and present of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz 1992, p 90f.

• In: Pschyrembel. Clinical Dictionary with clinical syndromes and nouns Anatomica. Edited by the dictionary editors of Walter de Gruyter. 256th edition. Berlin / New York 1990, p 1583rd [ First in the 255th edition of 1986, then expanded, not in the 257th edition, again changed and expanded in the 258th, 259th, 260th and 261st edition. ]

• In: Jürgen Mittelstraß (ed.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Theory. J. B. Metzler, 2004.

• [lat abgek. morb. lex. , decline disease in late cultures, esp in the west Occident common. Was considered incurable; Today overcome locally by using the time tracking device. ]
• In: dtv -Lexikon in 20 volumes. Munich 1999, Volume 19, pp. 159 [ First 1966. Vol. 19, p.197. In the editions after 1982 no longer included, but then resumed in a modified version.]

• In: Brock House - The Encyclopedia in 24 volumes. 20th edition. Leipzig / Mannheim 1999, Vol. 24, p 481

• [Name constructed as alleged resolution of the abbreviation, op cit. ']
• In: Encyclopedia of the tale. Pocket dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research, Vol 14, Berlin / Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2013, Sp 1382 to 1384.

• In: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. The article, which also exists in French and Italian, has been selected by a jury for the competition winners 2008.

In New Grove 's Dictionary of Music ( 1980) there were (if known) two fictitious entries, among a total of over 20,000 biographies: Dag Henrik Esrum Hellerup, allegedly a Danish composer and flutist, smuggled from a specialist in Scandinavian music Robert Layton and named after a suburb of Copenhagen ( Hellerup ). The other entry Guglielmo Baldini, Italian composer, his lineage could already be traced back to Hugo Riemann ( he was at the Grove 's test resistant to the " Archives of Freiburg Diocesan History " occupied). In the new editions both have been removed, but there was an article about fictional biographies of David Fallows. Baldini was found after Riemann, who assigns him a madrigal book and let him live in Ferrara in 1540, yet in several music encyclopedias. The only unit of its Madrigals burned by Prof. Budde unfortunately in World War II in Mainz.

Scientific literature on fictitious articles

The literature on literary forgeries and parody, travesty and pastiche seems to ignore the phenomenon to date or just to wander. One reason for this may be that the fact lexicon article are as use texts not in view. The following is a list of publications on the topic:

• J. A. Farrer: Literary forgeries. With an introduction by Andr. Long. Translated from English by Ms J. Clover Meier. Leipzig, 1907.
• Elisabeth Frenzel: counterfeiting, literary. In: Lexicon of German literary history. 2nd edition. Berlin 1958. Vol. 1, pp. 444-450.
• Karl Corino (ed.): Forged! Fraud in politics, literature, science, art and music. Nördlingen 1988.
• Werner Fuld: The Encyclopedia of fakes. Forgeries, lies and conspiracies from art, history, science and literature. Eichborn, Frankfurt 1999.
• Diagonal. Journal of Comprehensive University School of Siegen. Related Links: fakes. 1994, Issue 2
• Alfred songs: parody. In: Lexicon of German literary history. 2nd edition. Berlin / New York 1977, Volume 3, pp. 12-72.
• Theodor Verweyen, Gunther Witting: The parody in modern German literature. A systematic introduction. Darmstadt 1979.
• Wolfgang Karrer: parody, travesty, pastiche. Munich in 1977, UTB 581
• Winfried friend: literary parody. Metzler collection vol 200, Stuttgart 1981.
• Michael Ringel: 15 "U- boats" in reference books. In: The cunning Book of Truth. Worthless Knowledge high 10 S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp. 202-213.
• Michael Ringel: 28 Nihilartikel in reference books. In: Ringel's marginal notes. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, pp. 196-224.
• Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont: Impostures. 1st edition. C.H.Beck, 1999, ISBN 978-3-406-45274-1.

Contrast, can be found in the feuilleton occasionally glosses on individual keywords, but also integrating summaries and sample collections.