The making of plausibility in interpretive texts. Analyses of argumentative practices in literary studies

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Simone Winko
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 372804438

A corpus of 100 research papers will be analyzed to investigate the strategies used in interpretations of literary texts to make their hypotheses plausible. The praxeologically oriented project resumes studies of the 1970s, links them with current concepts of argumentation as a social practice and develops a special hermeneutical, criterion-based method to analyze the argumentation structure of the texts with systematic consideration of the means of presentation. It aims at gaining more detailed knowledge about a particularly important practice of the generation and mediation of knowledge in literary studies, that, despite of its importance, has hardly been explored. At the same time the project aims at disclosing implicit rules that are specific to the discipline or to some of its areas. Furthermore, it will contribute to improve the communication about the argumentative practice in literary studies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants