Predictions between Occultism and Science

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Folke Gernert
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 210230660

As a consequence of Renaissance Humanism scholars rediscovered a series of disciplines which undoubtedly belong, from our modern point of view, to the field of charlatanism. Nevertheless, in those days, they definitely played an important part in the development of modern sciences. Furthermore, they are characterised by their conspicuous everyday life implication. Just as Astrology pretended to read the future out of the stars, physiognomy, chiromancy and metoposcopy were devoted to the interpreting of the signs of the human body. This Project aims to analyse the textualization and fictionalization of these forms of knowledge and the professions related to them in the Spanish Literature of the Golden Age. On the one hand, different literary genres adopt divergent strategies for dealing with these sciences just as we can find marginalization in erotic literature, inventory in books of chivalry and popularization in drama. On the other hand, a diachronic perspective shows increasing criticism towards these forms of knowledge based on the concept of analogy, especially during the 17th century. This attitude is reinforced in Counterreformation Spain because of their relationship to the problematic principle of predestination.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Spain
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Jorge García López