Research Program
The interdisciplinary research training group analyzes contemporary literatures since 1945 in different public and cultural contexts. It adopts a broad conception of literature, including socio-cultural, political, and economic contexts, (inter-)mediality, institutional conditions, as well as literary life as subjects for enquiry.
The research training group focuses on literatures in various languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian), including “small literatures” and minority cultures on different continents. On the basis of comparative and transnational perspectives, the research training group takes praxeological, social, media related, material, ethical, and economic aspects into account.
The research training group explores the cultural specificities, potentials, and functions of these literatures and investigates their conditions of emergence and public resonance. It conceives of literatures (1) as seismographs of often contradictory cultural, media related, and social developments, (2) as generators of a vocabulary to articulate the multilayered experiences of the contemporary moment, and (3) as forums for the discussion of concerns relevant to the public.
Drawing on five closely interrelated fields of interest, the research training group examines how fragmenting publics constitute a relevant context for and a prominent concern of these literatures:
- Literatures’ strategies to activate attention
- Public contexts of literatures
- Material appearances/materiality of literatures
- Literary knowledge production
- Literary ethics and politics
Guest Lectures and Workshops as Part of the Research Program
Guest Lecture: “Containing Multitudes: The Social Logic of Lyric in the Mass Public Sphere”
Tuesday, 04.02.2025, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Dr. Andrew Gorin, University of Haifa
00.5 PSG III, Kochstr. 6a, Erlangen
Guest Lecture: “Opaque Practices and Literary Publics – New Writings from the Black Diaspora”
Tuesday, 10.12.2024, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schmidt, LMU München
00.5 PSG III, Kochstr. 6a, Erlangen
Guest Lecture: “Ausstellungen von Literatur anlässlich der Kafka-Ausstellung an der Bodleian Library, Oxford University”
Tuesday, 12.11.2024, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Prof. Barry Murnane, Oxford University
00.5 PSG III, Kochstr. 6a, Erlangen
Guest Lecture: “Schwarze Reportagen. Muckraking in Berlin und Wien um 1900”
Tuesday, 29.10.2024
Prof. Dr. Ethel Matala de Mazza, HU Berlin
Wassersaal, Orangerie, Erlangen
Workshop: “Perspektiven in der Wissenschaft”
Wednesday, 30.10.2024
Prof. Dr. Ethel Matala de Mazza, HU Berlin
Guest Lecture: “Wie umgehen mit Rassismus im Werk Immanuel Kants?”
Tuesday, 23.01.2024, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Maximilian Huschke, Universität Jena, DFG-Kossellek-Projekt “Wie umgehen mit Rassismus, Antisemitismus und Sexismus in Werken der klassischen Deutschen Philosophie?”
KH 1.016 Hörsaal, Kollegienstraße 15, Erlangen
Workshop: “Die Konstruktion von race und ihre literarische Funktion in Kleists »Die Verlobung in St. Domingo«”
Luise Grabolle, Universität Leipzig, “Junges Forum Literaturwissenschaft”
Villa, 2.OG, Universitätsstr. 40.
Guest Lecture: “Social Capital: Epic Fantasy and the Magical School”
Tuesday, 13.06.2023, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Prof. PhD Mark McGurl, Stanford University
KH 0.014 Hörsaal, Kollegienstraße 15, Erlangen
Guest Lecture: Friederike Eigler, “Flucht und Vertreibung in Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft”
Monday, 19.12.2022, 06:00-07:30 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Friederike Eigler, Georgetown University Washington
KH 0.014 Hörsaal, Kollegienstraße 15, Erlangen
External Workshops, Talks on Professional Practice, Research Retreats
2024
December 11-12, 2024
Writingworkshop
Dzifa Vode
November 12, 2024
Talk on Professional Practice: “Career in Science”
Antje Kley, Dirk Niefanger
October 17-19, 2024
A second retreat took place as a three-day compact event, from the 17th to the 19th of October, with three Mercator Fellows (Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, German Studies, University of Münster; Steffen Martus, German Studies, Humbolt University of Berlin; Johannes Völz, American Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt). As in the first retreat, the PHD candidates’ research projects were discussed in small groups of the candidates themselves, their advisors, as well as the Mercator-Fellows acting as external specialists. In the afternoons, the group went on hikes in the surroundings. The retreat opened with a presentation from Martina Wagner-Engelhaaf on the topic of “Autofiction.” The retreat ended with a fireside chat with Steffen Martus to the topic of “Contemporary literature as social practice.”
April 17, 2024
Workshop: “Posters”
Birgit Lukowski
2023
December 13, 2023
Talk on Professional Practice: “Journalistic Practice”
Ronja von Wurmb-Seibel
December 12-13, 2023
Workshop: “Transmission of Literature”
Arnold Maxwill
October 5-7, 2023
A first retreat took place as a three-day compact event, from the 5th to the 7th of October, with three Mercator Fellows (Christine Magerski, Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Zagreb; Heinz Drügh, German Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt; Werner Sollors, English/American Studies, Harvard University). During the retreat, the PHD candidates’ research projects were discussed in small groups of the candidates themselves, their advisors, as well as the Mercator-Fellows acting as external specialists. In the afternoons, the group went on hikes in the surroundings. In the evenings, the Fellows presented their current projects.
May 2-3, 2023
Workshop: “Ghostwriting”
Oliver Kobold