Tolerance of Aesthetic Ambiguity: German Literary Scandals in Diachronic Comparison (18th-19th Century)

• Applicant: Dr. Nursan Celik
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 550713423

The project takes up on the observation that a loss of tolerance of ambiguity is being repeatedly criticised in recent public discourse, particularly in cultural and political field as the emergence and establishment of so-called "cancel culture" demonstrates. ´Tolerance of ambiguity' refers to the cognitive competence of accepting ambiguity and contradictions. In a narrower sense, a lack of tolerance of ambiguity might indicate the inability to grasp issues from a polyperspective and thus hints at the susceptibility to rigid and authoritarian systems. The aim of the project is to scrutinise the thesis of a successive decline in tolerance of ambiguity on the basis of the literary field by analysing various German literary scandals. To this end, relevant literary scandals that occurred in the German-speaking world between the 18th and 19th centuries will be compared diachronically. The project´s focus on two centuries is threefold: Firstly, the comparison of case studies from two past centuries enables identifying developments in literary history and reception within a larger framework. Secondly, a comparison is facilitated insofar as the two selected centuries mark the (early) Modern period of literary history. Thirdly, the late 18th century as the starting point demonstrates the beginning of far-reaching processes of autonomisation and differentiation of the art system as well as the development of a broader public sphere, which is a crucial prerequisite for any kind of scandal. The project is based on a mixed-methods approach: The phenomenon of tolerance of ambiguity, which so far has mainly been analysed by cognitive psychology, will be combined with empirical and sociological approaches to literary scandals. The selection of the corpus of literary scandals is primarily based on the two criteria that they occurred in the late 18th century at the earliest and, secondly, that they took place in German-speaking countries or involve German literature or writers.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position