Perhaps we could begin with your book Discourse Networks 1800/1900. Why the new edition? What changes have you made to the book and how do they reflect on your general project for literary studies?

I didn't change a lot in terms of the book's basic approach to literature and literary studies as the study of media technologies. I made a few more references to politics and extra-German literatures. The third edition was more the desire of the publisher. Nonetheless, I am happy that the book, which virtually had me black-listed, is suddenly finding readers after having caused such a scandal ten years ago in literature departments - the book almost cost me my position in Freiburg. It's strange for me how a complete outsider-book can become such an insider-book, in the sense that the whole world - and I don't just mean universities - is talking about the materiality of communication. I'm fascinated when I see exhibitions like the ones in Marbach or Paris, dealing with the writer's tools-of-trade, his 'writing' material. These exhibitions take Nietzsche's comment on his typewriter as their point of departure: "Our writing materials help write our thoughts." It wasn't exactly the most common practice ten years ago to place that thought at the center of a Nietzsche interpretation. Apparently the computer has had such a widespread effect that everyone is aware now that so-called 'normal writing, although not quite over, has definitely ceased to represent the state of the art. That's what is suddenly being reflected upon in the literary sciences. The book was, so to speak, ahead of its time because at night after I had finished writing, I used to pick up the soldering iron and build circuits. I knew what was in store. I understood what an electronic circuit was because I was making a lot of electronic music back then. And now that it's become clear world-wide where the trend is heading, the book has gained its actuality.