The Allure of the Riddle. Aesthetics, Epistemology, Politics and Ethics of a Modern Figure of Thought

• Applicant: Dr. Eva Stubenrauch
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565008754

The scientific network ‘The Allure of the Riddle. Aesthetics, Epistemology, Politics and Ethics of a Modern Figure of Thought’ endeavours to systematically and historically research the riddle in modernity and to examine how its form and functionality has shaped literary and media aesthetics, philosophy, politics, the history of science and social theory. The network counters the existing assumption in literary studies that the riddle lost its social relevance with the advent of modernity by analysing the formal and functional transformations that have allowed the riddle to become a plot structure in modern genres such as crime novels or gothic fiction, a figure of argumentation in methods and theories (hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, sociology), a key piece of rhetoric in political foundation and conspiracy narratives and a popular engine for games in media entertainment. The systematic perspective on the riddle as a modern reflexive figure is ensured by the interdisciplinarity of the network, which combines a literary focus (German literary studies, comparative literature, English and Romance studies) with expertise in media studies, history, philosophy and sociology. For a historical perspective, which illuminates continuities between the medieval or early modern heyday of the ‘simple form’ and its actualisations since 1800 as well as historical breaks and innovations, the network integrates medievalists. Through its historically comparative and interdisciplinary cooperation, the network opens up a new, cross-epochal field of research. At its centre lies the thesis that the riddle exerts a special allure for various modern fields of knowledge and society, which lies above all in its dual function of destabilising and restabilising reality. The fundamental questions of modernity are reflected with and through riddle structures: from the problem ‘reality vs. fiction’ to the inaccessibility of the Other and the porosity of epistemic and political orders. The network organises its research into the riddle as a basic structure of the modern perception, negotiation and representation of reality into four areas of phenomena and impact: riddle structures, riddle epistemologies, politics of the riddle and ethics of the riddle. In terms of their result, the group aims to produce a compendium that brings together the network’s historical and systematic research and serves as an orientation for further studies in the research field ‘The riddle in modernity’, as well as a periodical publication: a special edition on the phenomena and functionality of the riddle in the history of literature and theory after 1800, which showcases individual smaller projects of the network members.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Dana Steglich