The Contested Ego. The Pitaval and the Evolution of Personal Rights (1730 to 1900) (A03)

• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403589434

The means and strategies with which the process-oriented Pitaval as a genre demarcates the "own" from an "other" are examined, and at the same time the means and strategies with which it challenges the same demarcation. In terms of legal history, the focus is on developments and debates that recognise the natural person as an endangered and - at the same time - threatening legal subject. In these decades, so crucial for the constitution of modern society, the idea of a pathological ego forms the night sides of a triumphant liberal optimism.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1385: Law and Literature
• Applicant Institution: Universität Münster
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Eric Achermann; Professor Dr. Peter Oestmann