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EXC 2020:  Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective

Subject Area Literary Studies
Ancient Cultures
History
Art History, Music, Theatre and Media Studies
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies
Term since 2019
Website Homepage
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390608380
 
In its second funding period, EXC 2020 “Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective” will further develop its global perspective on literature in terms of transcultural and transtemporal entanglements in deep time. The Cluster refers to these entanglements as ‘temporal communities’. EXC 2020’s main focus will be on literature as a form of material praxis that generates aesthetic effects and forms of experience which contribute to shaping different notions of temporality. Through studying how literature as an aesthetic practice is embedded in and derives from material and social affordances and thereby produces temporalities of its own, EXC 2020 sees itself as part of a general development in literary studies and the Humanities that aims to move beyond the Western and Eurocentric ideas that still inform the conceptual frameworks according to which literature and the arts are studied today. To achieve its aims, the Cluster will engage both in theoretical and methodological discussions and in a broad range of case studies that focus on questions such as: What aesthetic practices become entangled in a given temporal community? How do they interact across time to forge new temporalities? How can time be shared and what are the tensions and competitive dynamics that evolve from such acts of sharing? What precisely are the temporalities that result from these diverse aesthetic practices? Do they offer a utopian potential or come with a sense of haunting, do they connect temporal communities to the past and different futures, or do they cut them off from what went before or what will follow? In order to put its agenda into practice, Temporal Communities will deepen and expand its network of international partners, especially by strengthening its relationship with the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. EXC 2020 will maintain its international fellows programme while extending its links to the Global South. The Cluster will intensify its cooperation with Berlin’s vibrant cultural scene and literary institutions, and continue to train new cohorts of doctoral candidates with innovative Cluster-related projects. EXC 2020 will provide a hub for postdocs to carry out research projects, including projects with cultural and artistic partner institutions in the city. A new master’s programme entitled “Global Literatures: Arts, Media, Aesthetics” will ensure that the Cluster’s perspective will directly translate into benefits for the student body at large. Through the platform “Doing Literature”, EXC 2020 will expand its digital presence to facilitate scholarly debate and bring its academic and artistic endeavours to specialist and non-specialist audiences alike.
DFG Programme Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
Applicant Institution Freie Universität Berlin
 
 

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