Through the concept of Stimmung, Gumbrecht has argued that certain cultural events and aesthetic experiences can become "present," or have a tangible effect on human senses, emotions, and bodies. This idea underlies Gumbrecht's writing about literary criticism and methods of interpretation, and also much of his other work on material forms of culture, communication, and understanding in the 20th and 21st centuries. Presence is a central concept to many of his books, including "In 1926: Living on the Edge of Time" (1998), "Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey" (2003), "The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship" (2003), "Atmosphere, Mood, Stimmung: On a Hidden Potential of Literature" (2012), "After 1945: Latency as Origin of the Present" (2013), and "Our Broad Present: Time and Contemporary Culture" (2014).