GRK 2560:  Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes

• Subject Area: Literary Studies ; History ; Social Sciences ; Linguistics
• Term: since 2021
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413881800

The International Research Training Group “Baltic Peripeties” (IRTG), jointly established by researchers at the Universities of Greifswald, Tartu and Trondheim, has adapted the concept of peripety to draw attention to the perception of the Baltic Sea region (B.S.R.) through storytelling and narrative event construction. First used in Aristotle’s Poetics, where "peripeteia" refers to the turning point in a tragedy, the event that makes obvious that what is expected will happen differently, the IRTG expands the concept to an umbrella term for different kinds of turning points, of radical change and upheaval. In the course of the decline of the long-established master narrative that presented the B.S.R. as a model region of international cooperation and political stability, the recent drastic events and the corresponding accumulation of peripeties in narratives of crisis, change and transformation have turned the B.S.R. into a dynamic centre of complex debates. Historical legacies and long-term transformations have become topical social issues that need to be analysed, but are difficult to understand using conventional approaches. Research into the narrative constitution of the B.S.R., the topicality (and history) of peripeties and their social resonances requires an interdisciplinary approach. The IRTG's research has shown that the concept of peripety is particularly productive when it is understood not only as a single event, but rather as an interruptive, relational and dynamic zone of change. Accordingly, the work of the IRTG is structured around research frames in which, by highlighting three important dimensions of peripety, we examine A) how adjacent horizons of expectation silently or overtly break apart, B) how the escalation of conflict and crisis develops gradually, and C) how contested and conflicting narratives shape what can be understood as an event or a peripety at all. Given the far-reaching impact of current crises and their antecedents, the IRTG takes into account transregional entanglements for further analysis of regional specificities as well as bodily and biographical resonances. By integrating the philologies relevant to the B.S.R., history, philosophy and political science in an international network that can strengthen and complement the participating disciplines, the IRTG offers a unique research and qualification programme for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers that enables an innovative approach to the B.S.R. By addressing the power of narrative for the ‘making of’ regions, the programme promotes theoretical and methodological advances through the adaptation of the concept of peripety as a tool of inquiry in (trans-)regional studies as well as advances in material-based research and methodology in the fields of narratology and discourse analysis.

• DFG Programme: International Research Training Groups
• International Connection: Estonia, Norway
• Applicant Institution: Universität Greifswald
• IRTG-Partner Institution: Department of Language and Literature; Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Tartu Ülikool
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Eckhard Schumacher
• IRTG-Partner: Spokespersons: Professorin Dr. Ingvild Folkvord; Professor Dr. Anti Selart
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Roman Dubasevych; Professorin Dr. Sünne Juterczenka; Professor Dr. Stephan Kessler; Professorin Dr. Corinna Kröber; Professor Dr. Jochen Müller; Professor Dr. Mathias Niendorf; Professor Dr. Marko Pantermöller; Professorin Dr. Annelie Ramsbrock; Professor Dr. Clemens Räthel; Professor Dr. Micha Werner