Comparative practices in the creation, perpetuation and transformation of "national literature". The Case of German-speaking Switzerland. (E06#)

• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2022 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317664947

Whenever one talks about 'national literature', comparisons are made. These often take the form of juxtaposing "Goethe vs. Shakespeare", of likening and contrasting literary customs or genres by country. At the same time, often profound and implicit ideas are constructed, for example about 'national characters' and their differences. But how do national literatures emerge through concrete, clustered practices of actors? What do they entail and what are alternative concepts? Our project explores these questions by examining the case of Swiss German literature 1850-1950, with its tension between autonomy, multilingualism, and literary traditions. Using a digital corpus of diverse texts from journalism, literary studies, and the cultural field, we apply text mining to comparative practices, rendering visible patterns of 'doing national literature'.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1288: Practices of comparisons: Ordering and changing the world
• Applicant Institution: Universität Bielefeld
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Berenike Herrmann, since 7/2022