GRK 1886:  Literary Form. Historical and Cultural Formations of Aesthetic Models

• Subject Area: Literary Studies
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 216621636

The Research Training Group takes as its subject the assessment and advancement of the concepts of model and form in literary studies. Taking as a point of departure these dynamic concepts of form and model, the Research Training Group explores three major subject areas: "Theories of Form", "Practices of Form" and "Cultures of Form". These foci represent the historic and systematic aspects that will be approached in dissertation projects specifying literary form. The subject area "Theories of Form" is primarily concerned with the following questions: How do theories of form in different discourses, poetics and literatures relate to each other? What interferences exist between these theories, how can they be described, and what are their effects? What can be gained from a diachronic study of theories of form and their respective discursive environments? To what extent are considerations of model theories compatible with conventional theories of form, how do they interact, support and complement one another? The second subject area "Practices of Form" is dedicated to the following problems: How may genre formation be described as a modelling process between prescriptive typology (regulation, closure) and creative innovation (generic transformation, emergence and performance)? What are the genres’ epistemic functions? How are they linked to strategies of historical discourse processing, knowledge production and organisation? How may generic agency be analysed according to phenomena as "immanent generic competence" or concepts of descriptive literary history and theory? Finally, the subject area "Cultures of Form" relates to the question how the status and significance of traditional genres change in today’s globalised medial world. Which rules determine formal transformations in the novel media continuum of literature, film, performances and digital genres? Which aspects of traditional forms do serve as models for new formats, which do not? As to mentoring, the Research Training Group will benefit from the experiences of the University of Muenster’s Graduate School "Practices of Literature", especially from its job qualification programme. Moreover, the Research Training Group’s own supervisory capacities give strong support for academic networking and international affiliation within the University of Muenster’s broad academic framework.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität Münster
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Klaus Stierstorfer
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Moritz Baßler; Professorin Dr. Cornelia Blasberg; Professorin Dr. Lut Missinne; Professor Dr. Bruno Quast; Professorin Dr. Christine Schmitz; Professor Dr. Alfred Sproede; Professor Dr. Mark Stein; Professorin Dr. Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf; Professorin Dr. Karin Westerwelle; Dr. Barbara Winckler