Curriculum vitae

Winfried Menninghaus, born in 1952, is a literary scholar und philosopher. His research interests are strongly informed by ancient Greek and Latin rhetoric and poetics as well as by philosophical aesthetics from Baumgarten and Kant to today. His major studies on literary authors are devoted to German authors from the 18th to the 20th century: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, Ludwig Tieck, Gottfried Keller, Franz Kafka, and Paul Celan.

Regarding fundamental topics of aesthetics, he has published scholarly studies on beauty, the sublime, the Romanticist poetics of indefinite doubling (reduplication), the poetics of nonsense and caprice in Tieck’s „Bluebeard“, the affective nature as well as the aesthetic effects of what has been treated since Latin rhetoric and poetics under the term of being (emotionally) moved, and on the perennial question „What is art for?“.

From 2011 onward, Winfried Menninghaus expanded his research interests by way of designing and performing––in cooperations with psychologists, linguists and neuro-scientists––empirical studies that tested and expanded theoretical assumptions adopted from philosophical aesthetics on the one hand and from Roman Jakobson’s linguistic poetics of „parallelism“ on the other. These studies provide evidence that the overarching sound effects of parallelistic diction can––as theoretically stipulated already by Nietzsche and earlier English authors––be grasped by analyzing the time series of syllabic duration, pitch and intensity values of spoken texts (literary and others), and hence literally by computing their melodic properties (“poetic speech melody“). These melodic text properties are predictive of the aesthetically evaluative perceptions readers report.

Another series of studies is devoted to the dual, apparently even antagonistic nature of poetic diction: the extraordinary regularities of poetic parallelism routinely go along with higher than usual irregularities compared to ordinary language use, such as ellipses, inversions, and other departures from canonical language use. These ‚disorderly‘ features tend to compromise rather than enhance ease of processing; still, they likewise contribute positively to overall aesthetic liking. However, the positive effects of increased linguistic disorder/chaos are to a stronger degree dependent on person variables than are the positive effects of parallelism.

Another line of both empirical and theoretical studies addressed the longstanding topic of enjoyment associated with negative emotions (the so-called „paradox of tragedy“). It resulted in a theoretical model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception and a series of studies that tested this model.

Following up on Kant’s introduction of the concept „ästhetische Gefühle“ („aesthetically evaluative feelings,“ or, for short, „aesthetic feelings/ emotions“), a series of empirical and theoretical studies from Menninghaus‘ group expanded the understanding of Kant’s concept beyond Kant‘s exclusive focus on „feelings of beauty“ and „feelings of the sublime“.

Education

Academic Career 

Since 2023, Winfried Menninghaus is Professor emeritus at the Max Planck-Institute of Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main.

Monographs

(1980) Walter Benjamins Theorie der Sprachmagie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1980) Paul Celan – Magie der Form. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1982) Artistische Schrift. Studien zur Kompositionskunst Gottfried Kellers. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1986) Schwellenkunde. Walter Benjamins Passage des Mythos. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1987) Unendliche Verdopplung. Die frühromantische Grundlegung der Kunsttheorie im Begriff absoluter Selbstreflexion. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1992) Mugen no nijuka (= Japanese translation of „Unendliche Verdopplung“ [1987]). Trans. Shuichi Ito. Tokyo: Hosei University Press.

(1995) Lob des Unsinns. Über Kant, Tieck und Blaubart. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1999) In Praise of Nonsense. Kant and Bluebeard, (English translation of Lob des Unsinns. [1995]). Trans. Henry Pickford. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

(1999) Ekel. Theorie und Geschichte einer starken Empfindung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. (Apart from chapters on the role of disgust in the thought of Kant, German Romanticism, Nietzsche, Freud, and Bataille, this book includes a 250 pages-study on the eminent role of „disgust“ in Kafka‘s writings).

(2000) Shikiigaku (= Japanese translation of the book Schwellenkunde [1986]). Trans. Shuichi Ito. Tokyo: Gendai Shichosha.

(2003) Disgust. Theory and History of a Strong Sensation (=English translation of the book Ekel [1999]). Trans. Howard Eiland and Joel Golb. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

(2003) Das Versprechen der Schönheit. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(2005) Hälfte des Lebens. Versuch über Hölderlins Poetik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(2008) Kunst als „Beförderung des Lebens“. Perspektiven transzendentaler und evolutionärer Ästhetik. München (= Themen Bd. 89 der Carl Friedrich von Siemens-Stiftung)

(2009) Wstret. teoria i historia (= Polish translation of the German book Ekel [1999]). Trans. Grzegorz Sowinski. Kraków: universitas.

(2010) Hakike. Aru kyoretsu na kankaku no riron to rekishi (=Japanese translation of the book Ekel [1999]). Trans. Yoshikazu Takemine, Yuri Chino, and Toshiyuki Yui. Tokyo: Hosei University Press.

(2011) Wozu Kunst? Ästhetik nach Darwin. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

(2013) Saber de los umbrales (= Spanish translation of the book Schwellenkunde [1986]). Trans. Mariela Vargas and Martín Simesen de Bielke. Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos.

(2013) Bi no Yakusoku (= Japanese translation of Das Versprechen der Schönheit [2003]). Trans. Shuichi Ito. Tokyo: Gendaishichoshinsha.

(2013) La promessa della Bellezza (= Italian translation of Das Versprechen der Schönheit [2003]). Trans. Davide di Maio (a cura di Salvatore Tedesco). Palermo: Aesthetica Edizioni.

(2014). A cosa serve l'arte? L'estetica dopo Darwin [=Italian translation of Wozu Kunst? Ästhetik nach Darwin  [2011]). Trans. Massimo Salgaro. Vol. 14 of the series La musa Critica. Verona: Fiorini.

(2016). Disgusto. Teoria e storia di una sensazione forte. (= Italian translation of Ekel. Theorie und Geschichte einer starken Empfindung). Trans. Serena Feloj. Milano: Mimesis.

(2018). Sei no nakaba: Hoelderlin shigaku ni matsuwaru shiron (=Japanese translation of Hälfte des Lebens: Versuch über Hölderlins Poetik, 2005). Trans. Yoshikazu Takemine. Tokio: Getsuyousha Limited.

(2019). Aesthetics after Darwin.The multiple origins and functions of the arts, trans. Alexandra Berlina, Academic Studies Press. Trans. Alexandra Berlina. Academic Studies Press, Brookline/M.A.. (This English translation of Wozu Kunst? Ästhetik nach Darwin [2011] includes substantial additions to and alterations of the original German edition.)

(2020). „Darwin igo no bigaku: Geijutsu no kigen to kinou no fukugousei“ (=Japanese translation of Aesthetics after Darwin - The multiple origins and functions of the arts [2019]). Trans. Shuichi Ito. Tokyo: Hosei University Press.

Edited books

(1981) Henrik Pontoppidan: Hans im Glück. Frankfurt am Main: Insel.

(1983) Friedrich Schlegel: Theorie der Weiblichkeit. Frankfurt am Main: Insel.

(1988) Paul Celan (with Werner Hamacher). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

(1989) Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Gedanken über die Natur der Poesie. Dichtungstheoretische Schriften. Frankfurt am Main: Insel.

Scholarly Articles

(1980) „Walter Benjamins romantische Idee des Kunstwerks und seiner Kritik.” In: Poetica 12 (1980), 421-442.

(1981) „Henrik Pontoppidans Lykke-Per.” In: Henrik Pontoppidan: Hans im Glück. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1981, 817-874.

(1983) „Kant, Hegel und Marx in Lukács’ Theorie der Verdinglichung. Destruktion eines neomarxistischen ‚Klassikers’.” In: Norbert W. Bolz & Wolfgang Hübener (eds.), Spiegel und Gleichnis. Festschrift für Jacob Taubes. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 318-330.

(1987) „Zwischen Bandello und Shakespeare: Pierre Boaistuaus Romeo und Julia-Version”. Poetica 19, 3-31.

(1988) „Zum Problem des Zitats bei Celan und in der Celan-Philologie.” In: Werner Hamacher & Winfried Menninghaus (eds.), Paul Celan. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988, 170-190.

(1988) „Walter Benjamin’s theory of myth”. In: Gary Smith (ed.), On Walter Benjamin: Critical Essays and Recollections. Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 292-325.

(1989) „Klopstocks Poetik der schnellen ‚Bewegung’”. In: F. G. Klopstock, Gedanken über die Natur der Poesie. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 259-361.

(1989) „Die frühromantische Theorie von Zeichen und Metapher”. The German Quarterly  62, 48-58.

(1990) „Geschichte und Eigensinn. Zu Hermeneutik-Kritik und Poetik Alexander Kluges”. In: Hartmut Eggert, Ulrich Profitlich & Klaus R. Scherpe (eds.), Geschichte als Literatur. Formen und Grenzen der Repräsentation von Vergangenheit. Stuttgart: Metzler, 258-272.

(1991) „Siegel, Name und Zeit. Zu Paul Celans Gedicht Mit Brief und Uhr“. In: Hans-Michael Speier (ed.), Celan-Jahrbuch 4. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 7-26.

(1991) „Zwischen Überwältigung und Widerstand. Macht und Gewalt in Longins und Kants Theorien des Erhabenen“. Poetica 23, 1-19.

(1991) „Dichtung als Tanz – Zu Klopstocks Poetik der Wortbewegung”. Comparatio. Revue Internationale de Littérature Comparée 2-3, 129-150.

(1992) „Das Ausdruckslose: Walter Benjamins Kritik des Schönen durch das Erhabene“. In: Uwe Steiner (ed.), Walter Benjamin 1892-1940. Bern: Peter Lang Verlag, 1992, 33-76.

(1994) „Meridian des Schmerzes. Zum Briefwechsel Paul Celan/ Nelly Sachs“. Poetica 26, 169-179.

(1994) „La mitologia del caos nel romanticismo e nell’età moderna“. Cultura Tedesca 2, 7-18.

(1994) „Kant über ‚Unsinn’, ‚Lachen’ und ‚Laune’“. Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift für Philosophie und Geistesgeschichte 68, 263-286.

(1994) „Darstellung. Zur Emergenz eines neuen Paradigmas bei Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock”. In: Christian Hart Nibbrig (ed.), Was heißt Darstellen? Frankfurt am Main:  Suhrkamp, 205-226.

(1995) „Walter Benjamin’s Variations of Imagelessness“. In: Timothy Bahti & Marilyn Sibley Fries (eds.), Jewish Writers, German Literature. The Uneasy Examples of Nelly Sachs and Walter Benjamin. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 155-173.

(1996) „Mitologia do Caos no Romantismo e na Modernidade“. Estudos Avançados 27, 127-138.

(1997) „Ekel-Tabu und Omnipräsenz des ‚Ekel’ in der ästhetischen Theorie (1740-1790)“. Poetica 29, 405-431.

(1999) „Kafkas thanatographisches ‚Genießen’ und Walter Benjamins Roman-Poetik“. In: Winfried Menninghaus & Klaus R. Scherpe (eds.), Literaturwissenschaft und politische Kultur. Eberhard Lämmert zum 75. Geburtstag. Stuttgart/ Weimar: Metzler, 117-125.

(1999) „Hummingbirds, Shells, Picture-Frames: Kant’s ‚Free Beauties’ and the Romantic Arabesque“. In: Martha Helfer (ed.) Rereading Romanticism, (= Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik, vol. 47). Amsterdam/ Atlanta, GA.: Editions Rodopi, 27-46.

(1999) „‚Czernowitz/ Bukowina’ als Topos deutsch-jüdischer Geschichte und Literatur“. In: Lyrik. Über Lyrik. Merkur 9, 345-357.

(1999) „Disgusting Impotence and Romanticism“. In: European Romantic Review 10 (Special Issue: 1798 and Its Implications), 202-213.

(2000) „Le mouvement du rire chez Kant“. In: Dix-huitième siècle 32, 265-277.

(2000) „Walter Benjamins Diskurs der Destruktion“. In: Hans Richard Brittnacher & Fabian Stoermer (eds.), Der schöne Schein der Kunst und seine Schatten. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 242-254.

(2000) „‚Czernowitz/ Bukowina’ als Topos deutsch-jüdischer Geschichte und Literatur“. In: Peter Buhrmann (ed.), Zur Lyrik Paul Celans (= Text und Kontext. Zeitschrift für germanistische Literaturforschung in Skandinavien, vol. 44). Kopenhagen/ München: Fink, 9-30.

(2001) „Siegel, Name und Zeit. Zu Paul Celans Gedicht ‚Mit Brief und Uhr’“. In: Reinhardt Brandt (ed.), Meisterwerke der Literatur. Von Homer bis Musil. Reclam: Leipzig, 2001, 352-380.

(2001) „Ekel“. In: Karlheinz Barck (ed.), Ästhetische Grundbegriffe. Historisches Wörterbuch in sieben Bänden. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000-2005, vol. 2, 142-177.

(2003) „Geist, Sein, Reflexion und Leben: Hölderlins Darstellungstheorie“. In: Thomas Roberg (ed.), Friedrich Hölderlin. Neue Wege der Forschung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 49-66.

(2005) „Vom enzyklopädischen Prinzip romantischer Poesie“. In: Waltraud Wiethölter/ Frauke Berndt/ Stephan Kammer (Hg.), Vom Weltbuch bis zum World Wide Web – Enzyklopädische Literaturen. Heidelberg: Winter, 2005, 149-163.

(2005) „Kafkas Klartext“. In: Martin Vöhler & Bernd Seidensticker (eds.), Mythenkorrekturen. Zu einer paradoxalen Form der Mythenrezeption. Berlin: de Gruyter, 297-316.

(2006) „Der Verschollene oder die Trajektorie männlicher Unschuld im Felde ‚widerlicher’ weiblicher Praktiken“. In: Claudia Liebrand (ed.), Franz Kafka. Neue Wege der Forschung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 209-221.

(2007) „Raum-Chiffren der frühromantischen Philosophie“. In: Inka Mülder-Bach & Gerhard Neumann (eds.), Räume der Romantik. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 13-25.

(2007) „Hölderlin’s Sapphic Mode: Revising the Myth of the Male Pindaric seer“. In: Emily Sun, Eyal Peretz & Ulrich Baer (eds.), The Claims of Literature. A Shoshana Felma Reader. New York: Fordham, 275-292.

(2007) „Schönheit – Leben – Tod. Zur Evolution von Aussehenspräferenzen“. In: Cathrin Gutwald & Raimar Zons (eds.), Die Macht der Schönheit. München: Fink, 35-48.

(2009) „’Ein Gefühl der Beförderung des Lebens‘. Kants Reformulierung des Topos lebhafter Vorstellung“. In: Armen Avanessian, Winfried Menninghaus & Jan Völker (eds), Vita aesthetica. Szenarien ästhetischer Lebendigkeit. Zürich/ Berlin: diaphanes, 77-94.

(2009) „On the ‚Vital Significance‘ of Kitsch: Walter Benjamin's Politics of ‚Bad Taste‘“. In: Andrew Benjamin & Charles Rice (eds.), Walter Benjamin and the Architecture of Modernity. Melbourne: re.press, 39-57.

(2010) „Schlummernde Gefühle von Liebe und Krieg. Charles Darwins Theorie der Musik“. In: Gegenworte. Wissenschaft trifft Kunst, hg. von der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Vol. 23, 34-38.

(2010) „Vier Vektoren der Schönheit: Sexualität, Technik, Sprache, Kunst“. In: Konrad Paul Liessmann (ed.), Vom Zauber des Schönen. Reiz, Begehren und Zerstörung. Wien: Zsolnay, 17-40.

(2010) „Biologie nach der Mode. Charles Darwins Ornament-Ästhetik“. In: Ernst Peter Fischer & Klaus Wiegandt (eds.), Evolution und Kultur des Menschen. S. Fischer: Frankfurt am Main, 220-243.

(2011) „Durchschossen von Latenz: menschliche Schönheit in evolutionärer Perspektive“. In: Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht/ Florian Klinger (eds.), Latenz. Blinde Passagiere in den Geisteswissenschaften, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck, 80-90.

(2011) „Metrum, Rhythmus, Melodie. „Der Maiabend“ von Johann Heinrich Voß und Fanny Hensel“ (co-authors Lars Korten, Friederike Wißmann, and Jan Stenger). In: Poetica 43, 81-102.

(2011) „O modo sáfico de Hölderlin: Revendo o mito do vidente masculino em Pindaro“. In: Bruno C. Duarte (ed.), Lógica poética. Friedrich Hölderlin. Lisboa: Vendaval, 139-168.

(2012) „'Kitsch' als Organon historischer Erfahrung. Walter Benjamins Spurensuche im Feld des 'schlechten Geschmacks'“. Neue Rundschau 123, 17-42.

(2012) „Im Wechselbad der Gefühle. Die Emotionsvielfalt im filmischen Melodram – eine Mikroanalyse“ (co-author Julian Hanich). Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft 56.

(2013) „Música y retórica en la teoría di Darwin“. In: Literatura: teoria, historica, critica 15 (1), 249-280.

(2013) „Darwin’s theory of music, rhetoric and poetry“. In: G. A. Danieli, A. Minelli, & T. Pievani (eds.), Stephen J. Gould: The scientific legacy, 169-176. Springer: Milan.

(2013) „Nackte Haut, Imagination und Geheimnis: Menschliche Schönheit in

evolutionärer Perspektive.“ In: Sull’Emozione, 29, 67-77.

(2016) „Caprices of fashion in culture and biology: Charles Darwin’s aesthetics of ‚ornament‘“. In: Matteucci, G. & Marino, S. (eds.), Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion (pp. 137-150). London, New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

(2017) „Beyond Sadness: The Multi-Emotional Trajectory of Melodrama“ (co-authors Hanich, J. & Wilder, St.) . Cinema Journal: The Journal of The Society for Cinema & Media Studies, 56(4), 76-101. doi:10.1353/cj.2017.0041.

(2020) „Empirische Ästhetik der Sprache und Literatur – Was kann sie besser als die herkömmliche Literaturwissenschaft und was nicht?“ In: Y. Sakamoto, Y., F. Jäger, F. & J. Tanaka, J. (eds.), Bilder als Denkformen - Bildwissenschaftliche Dialoge zwischen Japan und Deutschland, 195-214. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.

(2021) „Empirical Aesthetics of Language and Literature: Its Strengths and Weaknesses Compared to the Humanist Scholarship of Literature“. Letteratura e Letterature, 15, 113-127.

(2022) „Zu den schönsten vor Allen in der Schweiz“: Der erste Satz des Grünen Heinrich“. In: F. Berndt (ed.), Kellers Medien: Formen – Genres – Institutionen. Berlin: De Gruyter, 17-25.

(2022) „Wo er vorbei dir glänzt“: Poetische Sprache und das Wechselspiel des Lieblichen mit dem Erhabenen in Hölderlins Ode „Heidelberg“. Poetica, 53(3-4), 253-289.doi:10.30965/25890530-05301011.

(2024) „Poesie der Grammatik in Klopstocks Ode Die Sommernacht“. In:Lutz Hagestedt, L. & Nebrig, A. (eds.), „Wer wird nicht einen Klopstock loben?“ Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstocks poetische Innovationen und ihre produktive Rezeption, 275-286.

Scientific Articles

(2012) Schindler, I., Zink, V., Windrich, J., and Menninghaus, W.. „Admiration and Adoration: Their Different Ways of Showing and Shaping Who We Are.“ Cognition and Emotion 26, 1-34.

(2013) Obermeier, C., Menninghaus, W., von Koppenfels, M., Raettig, T., Schmidt-Kassow, M., Otterbein, S., and Kotz, S.A.. „Aesthetic and emotional effects of meter and rhyme in poetry.“ Frontiers in Psychology /*4:*10. doi:, 1-10.

(2013) Bohrn, I. C., Altmann, U., Lubrich, O., Menninghaus, W., and Jacobs, A. M.. „When we like what we know - A parametric fMRI analysis of beauty and familiarity.“ Brain and Language 124 :1-8.

(2014) Kuehnast, M., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W.. „Being moved: linguistic representation and conceptual structure“. Frontiers in Psychology. Emotion Science, 5, 1242. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01242

(2014) Hanich, J., Wagner, V., Shah, M., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W.. „Why we like to watch sad films. The pleasure of being moved in aesthetic experiences.“ Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(2), 130–143. doi:10.1037/a0035690.

(2014) Wagner, V., Menninghaus, W., Hanich, J., & Jacobsen, T.. „Art schema effects on affective experience: The case of disgusting images“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(2), 120–129. doi:10.1037/a0036126.

(2014) Menninghaus, W., Bohrn, I. C., Altmann, U., Lubrich, O., & Jacobs, A. M.. „Sounds funny? Humor effects of phonological and prosodic figures of speech“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(1), 71–76. doi:10.1037/a0035309.

(2015) Wassiliwizky, E., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W.. „Art-elicited chills  indicate states of being moved“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(4), 405-416. doi:10.1037/aca0000023.

(2015) Menninghaus, W., Bohrn, I. C., Knoop, C. A., Kotz, S. A., Schlotz, W., & Jacobs, A. M.. „Rhetorical features facilitate prosodic processing while handicapping ease of semantic comprehension“. Cognition, 143, 48-60. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.026.

(2015) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Kuehnast, M., & Jacobsen, T.. „Towards a psychological construct of being moved“. PLoS One, 10(6): e0128451. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128451.

(2016) Sarkhosh, K., & Menninghaus, W.. „Enjoying trash films: Underlying features, viewing stances, and experiential response dimensions“. Poetics, 57, 40-54. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2016.04.002.

(2016) Knoop, C. A., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W.. „Mapping the aesthetic space of literature ‚from below‘”. Poetics, 56, 35-49. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2016.02.001.

(2016) Wagner, V., Klein, J., Hanich, J., Shah, M., Menninghaus, W., & Jacobsen, T.. „Anger Framed: A Field Study on Emotion, Pleasure, and Art“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10(2), 134-146. doi:10.1037/aca0000029.

(2016) Obermeier, C., Kotz, S. A., Jessen, S., Raettig, T., von Koppenfels, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Aesthetic appreciation of poetry correlates with ease of processing in event-related potentials.“ Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 16(2), 362-373. doi:10.3758/s13415-015-0396-x.

(2016) Kraxenberger, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Emotional effects of poetic phonology, word positioning and dominant stress peaks in poetry reading“. Scientific Study of Literature, 6(2), 298-313. doi:10.1075/ssol.6.2.06kra.

(2017) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S.. „The Distancing-Embracing model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception“. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40: e347. doi:10.1017/S0140525X17000309.

(2017) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S.. „Authors’ Response: Negative emotions in art reception: Refining theoretical assumptions and adding variables to the Distancing-Embracing model“. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40: e380, pp. 44-63. doi:10.1017/S0140525X17001947.

(2017) Hosoya, G., Schindler, I., Beermann, U., Wagner, V., Menninghaus, W., Eid, M., & Scherer, K.. „Mapping the Conceptual Domain of Aesthetic Emotion Terms: A Pile-Sort Study“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11(4), 457-473. doi:10.1037/aca0000123.

(2017) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Knoop, C. A.. „The emotional and aesthetic powers of parallelistic diction“. Poetics, 63, 47-59. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2016.12.001.

(2017) Schindler, I., Hosoya, G., Menninghaus, W., Beermann, U., Wagner, V., Eid, M., & Scherer, K. R.. „Measuring aesthetic emotions: A review of the literature and a new assessment tool“. PLoSOne, 12(6): e0178899. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178899.

(2017) Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., Heinrich, J., Schneiderbauer, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Tears falling on goosebumps: Co-occurrence of emotional lacrimation and emotional piloerection indicates a psychophysiological climax in emotional arousal“. Frontiers in Psychology, 8: 41. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00041.

(2017) Kraxenberger, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Affinity for Poetry and Aesthetic Appreciation of Joyful and Sad Poems“. Frontiers in Psychology, 7: 2051. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02051.

(2018) Thissen, B. A. K., Menninghaus, W., & Schlotz, W.. „Measuring Optimal Reading Experiences: The Reading Flow Short Scale“. Frontiers in Psychology, 9: 2542. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02542.

(2018) Wallot, S., & Menninghaus, W.. „Ambiguity effects of rhyme and meter“. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44(12), 1947-1954. doi:10.1037/xlm0000557.

(2018) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Knoop, C. A., & Scharinger, M.. „Poetic speech melody: A crucial link between music and language“. PLoS One, 13(11): e0205980. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0205980.

(2018) Blohm, S., Wagner, V., Schlesewsky, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Sentence judgments and the grammar of poetry: Linking linguistic structure and poetic effect“. Poetics, 69, 41-56. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2018.04.005.

(2018) Hoshi, H., & Menninghaus, W.. „The eye tracks the aesthetic appeal of sentences“. Journal of Vision 18(3), 1-22. doi:10.1167/18.3.19.

(2019) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Kegel, V., Knoop, C. A., & Schlotz, W.. „Beauty, elegance, grace, and sexiness compared“. PLoS One, 14(6): e0218728. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218728.

(2019) Auracher, J., Scharinger, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Contiguity-based sound iconicity: The meaning of words resonates with phonetic properties of their immediate verbal contexts“. PLoS One,14(5): e0216930. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216930.

(2019) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Schindler, I., Hanich, J., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S.. „What are aesthetic emotions?“ Psychological Review, 126(2), 171-195. doi:10.1037/rev0000135.

(2020) Auracher, J., Menninghaus, W., & Scharinger, M.. „Sound Predicts Meaning: Cross-Modal Associations Between Formant Frequency and Emotional Tone in Stanzas“. Cognitive Science, 44(10): e12906. doi:10.1111/cogs.12906.

(2020) Menninghaus, W., Schindler, I., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Hanich, J., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S.. „Aesthetic Emotions Are a Key Factor in Aesthetic Evaluation: Reply to Skov and Nadal“ (2020). Psychological Review, 127(4), 650-654. doi:10.1037/rev0000213.

(2020) Haider, T., Eger, S., Kim, E., Klinger, R., & Menninghaus, W.. „PO-EMO: Conceptualization, Annotation, and Modeling of Aesthetic Emotions in German and English Poetry“. In: International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC).

(2021) Knoop, C. A., Blohm, S., Kraxenberger, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „How perfect are imperfect rhymes? Effects of phonological similarity and verse context on rhyme perception“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 15(3), 560-572. doi:10.1037/aca0000277.

(2021) Wassiliwizky, E., & Menninghaus, W.. „Why and how should cognitive science care about aesthetics?“ Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(6), 437-449. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.03.008.

(2021) Beermann, U., Hosoya, G., Schindler, I., Scherer, K. R., Eid, M., Wagner, V., & Menninghaus, W.. „Dimensions and clusters of aesthetic emotions: A semantic profile analysis“. Frontiers in Psychology, 12: 667173. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.667173.

(2021) Kraxenberger, M., Knoop, C. A., & Menninghaus, W.. „Who reads contemporary erotic novels and why?“ Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8: 96. doi:10.1057/s41599-021-00764-3.

(2021) Salgaro, M., Wagner, V., & Menninghaus, W.. „A good, a bad, and an evil character: Who renders a novel most enjoyable?“ Poetics, 87: 101550. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2021.101550.

(2021) Wagner, V., Scharinger, M., Knoop, C. A., & Menninghaus, W.. „Effects of continuous self-reporting on aesthetic evaluation and emotional responses“. Poetics, 85: 101497. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101497.

(2021) Menninghaus, W., & Wallot, S.. „What the eyes reveal about (reading) poetry“. Poetics, 85:101526. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101526.

(2021) Sarkhosh, K., & Menninghaus, W.. „The Feel-Good Film: Genre Features and Emotional Rewards“. Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind, 15(1), 55-77. doi:10.3167/proj.2021.150104.

(2021) Blohm, S., Schlesewsky, M., Menninghaus, W., & Scharinger, M.. „Text type attribution modulates pre-stimulus alpha power in sentence reading“. Brain and Language, 214: 104894.doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104894.

(2022) Schindler, I., Wagner, V., Jacobsen, T., & Menninghaus, W.. „Lay conceptions of “being moved” (“bewegt sein”) include a joyful and a sad type: Implications for theory and research.“ PloS One, 17(10): e0276808. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0276808.

(2022) Menninghaus, W., & Blohm, S.. „Empirical Aesthetics of Poetry“. In M. Nadal, & O. Vartanian (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics, 704-720. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198824350.013.33.

(2022) Kentner, G., Franz, I., & Menninghaus, W.. „Poetics of reduplicative word formation: evidence from a rating and recall experiment“. Language and Cognition, 14(3), 333-361. doi:10.1017/langcog.2021.27.

(2022) Thissen, B. A. K., Schlotz, W., Abel, C., Scharinger, M., Frieler, K., Merrill, J., Haider, T., & Menninghaus, W.. „At the heart of optimal reading experiences: Cardiovascular activity and flow experiences in fiction reading“. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(3), 831-845. doi:10.1002/rrq.448.

(2022) Scharinger, M., Knoop, C. A., Wagner, V., & Menninghaus, W.. „Neural processing of poems and songs is based on melodic properties“. NeuroImage, 257: 119310. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119310.

(2022) Scharinger, M., Wagner, V., Knoop, C. A., & Menninghaus, W.. „Melody in poems and songs: Fundamental statistical properties predict aesthetic evaluation“. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, doi:10.1037/aca0000465.

(2022) Franz, I., Knoop, C. A., Kentner, G., Rothbart, S., Kegel, V., Vasilieva, J., Methner, S., Scharinger, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Prosodic Phrasing and Syllable Prominence in Spoken Prose. A Validated Coding Manual“. OSF Preprints. doi:10.31219/osf.io/h4sd5.

(2022) Wassiliwizky, E., & Menninghaus, W.. „The Power of Poetry“. In: A. Chatterjee & E. R.Cardillo (Eds.), Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics into Focus, 182-187. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0036.

(2022) Blohm, S., Versace, S., Methner, S., Wagner, V., Schlesewsky, M., & Menninghaus, W.. „Reading Poetry and Prose: Eye Movements and Acoustic Evidence“. Discourse Processes, 59(3), 159-183. doi:10.1080/0163853X.2021.2015188.

(2023) Kentner, G., Franz, I., Knoop, C. A., & Menninghaus, W.. „Prosodic Boundary Strength and Phrase-Initial Syllable Duration“. In: Skarnitzl, R. & Volín, J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, ICPhS 2023. Prague, 1440-1443.

(2023) Kentner, G., Franz, I., Knoop, C. A., & Menninghaus, W.. „The final lengthening of preboundary syllables turns into final shortening as boundary strength levels increase.“ Journal of Phonetics, 97: 101225. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101225.

(2023) Christensen, J. F., Bruhn, L., Schmidt, E.-M., Bahmanian, N., Yazdi, S. H. N., Farahi, F., Sancho-Escanero, L., & Menninghaus, W.. „A 5-emotions stimuli set for emotion perception research with full-body dance movements.“ Scientific Reports, 13(1): 8757. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33656-4.

(2023) Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Schindler, I., Knoop, Chr., Blohm, St., Frieler, K., Scharinger, M.. „Parallelisms and deviations: two fundamentals of an aesthetics of poetic diction“, in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) 379: 20220424.