The Opening Up of the World. Romance Renaissance Epic as the Place for Negotiation of Processes of Globalization

• Applicant: Dr. Helga Thalhofer
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268761310

The projected study presupposes that processes of globalization did not only begin in the 20th century, but already in the Age of Discovery as an earlier stage, and it wants to show that the epic is the most important place for the negotiation of those processes. The question for Renaissance epic is innovative in the respect that it encompasses the Lusiads by Camões, the Araucana by Ercilla, and also, in a later period of research, Jerusalem Delivered by Tasso. The guiding thread is the geographical, rhetorical and visual opening and representation of the earth and New World in conquest and prophecy, in the nexus of curiositas, mission and economic interest. The process of globalization is placed in a global context, and thus in European and non-European geographical, linguistic, ethnological, economic, and scientific processes of the first to third degree. This opening of the view of the world in the Age of Discovery, such as the opening of the sea passage to India by the Portuguese, manifests itself, in terms of literary genre, as an intertwinement of traditional and new forms of writing which, in turn, shape this opening. Here, a theory of genres has to be considered, since global movements have always not only been represented, but also formed via certain narrative genres, and since primarily epic shows an imperialistic tendency towards closure. In the projected study, categories like nation, empire, cosmopolitanism, the universal and the global as well as centre and periphery take on a central position.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor David Quint, Ph.D.