Precarious Literature (1830 – 1900). Unlocking and Systematizing Non-Canonical Narrative Texts of the 19th Century

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Maren Conrad
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426702937

During the 19th century, a new commercialized (mass)book market emerges which runs parallel to the complex forms of journal publications. This development is closely linked to the incipient culture of the public lending library during the 18th century (cf. Martino/Jäger, 1990). The current canonization of 19th century literature proves to be remarkably selective when it comes to adequately modelling the exploding book market from 1830 onwards. Contrary to expectations, the corpus of non-canonical narrative texts is not comprised of authors already marginalized by their contemporaries: Among the nowadays largely forgotten texts of this period are many examples that were widely read and highly acclaimed during their time. These texts where much more popular than the works that are well known today. In the cultural archive, these non-canonical texts are eclipsed by the canonical selection. However, from a synchronous perspective, these texts were much more influential in their day than the texts that were later canonized (cf. Stockinger 2010, 18).In this perspective, these forgotten texts of the 19th century form a corpus of highly influential co-texts for today’s canonized literature. This corpus needs to be unlocked again, (re-)defined and systematized.The projected network is dedicated to accessing then popular and influential narrative texts and, in exemplary form, furthermore aims to critically revise the judgmental selectivity practiced by canonization processes of the early 20th century that are ongoing in the present day. The network’s main agenda is to access and systematize contemporarily highly regarded, influential, and widely read, but today largely forgotten authors and texts. It furthermore seeks to reassess literary texts that were highly influential during their time.To this end, the network aims to re-evaluate the modernist literary aesthetic, taking a plethora of aspects into account: form, self-description, and theory, but also the analysis of material, medial, distributive, economic, and strategic mechanisms. It thereby transcends classic field-theoretical studies of the literature of the 19th century (cf. Rainey 1998 / Magerski 2004). At the centre of the project lies the endeavour to understand precarious literature as a socio-cultural space in which controversial fields of knowledge and their dynamics are codified and await to be unlocked. The network divides this field into four systematic areas of research: i) precarious knowledge, ii) precarious modernity, iii) precarious genres, and iv) precarious materiality.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Stefan Tetzlaff