Artefacts, Treasures and Ruins – Materiality and Historicity in the Literature of the English Middle Ages (B01)

• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2012 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191249397

The project investigates how English medieval texts highlight material objects as deeply entangled in networks of complex relationships. Such networks emerge through specific forms of literary representation and are constructed in both spatial and temporal terms. The project’s main focus lies on the temporal processes that render visible the transformations and re-connotations that occur within these networks. The primarily fictional objects involved in these processes are frequently highlighted as nodes connecting macro- and micro-constellations of knowledge as well as the temporalities associated with these constellations.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 980: Episteme in Motion - Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period
• Applicant Institution: Freie Universität Berlin
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Andrew James Johnston