The discourse concerning Islam in German primers 1870-1918

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Christian Dawidowski; Professor Dr. Eckhardt Fuchs
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education ; German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 351262725

The aim of the project is to systematically document the discourse concerning Islam as it appears in German primers published during the period in question. For that reason the collected textbooks from the period, held by the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, will be digitised, thus making them available as a full-text resource. The first step must be to rectify the existing research gap regarding the methodology within research into German language primers. The project is therefore divided into three parts:a) Theoretical foundation: Formulation of a genuine methodology for German-language primer research. German primers represent a special case within international textbook research and the dominant methodology of thematic discourse analysis cannot be applied to these text collections, which originate from the tradition of chrestomathy and are subdivided according to differing classification principles. Accordingly the project is developing a methodology oriented to the categories of text analysis within German studies and in conjunction with the intertextual theory of cultural semiotics which is therefore more appropriate to its subject matter.b) Digital capture: The digitisation of the German primers originating from the German imperial period from 1871 to 1918 that are held in the Georg Eckert Institute collection, and their subsequent availability as full-text digital resources.c) Comprehensive cataloging of portrayals of Islam in German primers. The project is documenting the suitability of the developed methodology using the discourse surrounding Islam as a case study; addressing the central questions: How was Islam and how were Muslims depicted in German primers in the period under examination? The project consequently contributes to the study of the 'Muslim outsiders' phenomenology during the imperial era and can indicate the historical constellation into which the current discourse concerning Islam should be placed. This last stage is of increasing relevance in the present climate of increasing intercultural and inter-religious association and can provide evidence of whether images of Islam can still be viewed as products of historical educational dissemination processes, thus defining the character of such constructs.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants