Collaborative Research Centre 1285: Project E - Early Modern German Literature
SFB 1285 Invectivity. Constellations and dynamics of disparagement
Phenomena of vituperation and degradation, shaming and exposure can be understood as fundamental operations of social communication across epochs and cultures. As moments of disruption, stabilization and dynamization of social orders, they have the potential to form communities and shape societies; in doing so, they are both destructive and productive. The research network summarizes such phenomena under the term "invectiveness". Learn more
TP E: Sacrality and sacrilege. The degradation of the sacred in the inter-confessional dispute of the 16th century
Lucas Cranach d. J.: Die wahre Religion Christi und die falsche Lehre des Antichristen. Kolorierter Holzschnitt 1545.
The project examines the mutual invectives between representatives of the Reformation and Old Believers from the beginning of the Reformation to the end of the 16th century. It centers these investigations on three subject areas: Monasticism, saints and legends as well as the person of Luther with the Protestant confessional legends and Old Believer anti-legends surrounding him after his death. The theoretical research interest of the project thus focuses on the structuring and escalative potential of invective.
It is based on the assumption that invective does not proceed evenly, but escalates and then expands to ever wider subject areas. At the same time, positions that have been formed through invective cannot be easily vacated, which leads to an autopoietic self-stabilization of invectivity. Conversely, this raises the question of how invectively achieved positions can be relativized again or at least made more flexible and to what extent previous invectives stand in the way of this, make it more difficult or impossible or lead to internal conflicts. The explicit or implicit justifications chosen for invective speech, whether and, if so, how criticism of invective speech is presented and how it is rejected also need to be investigated. The project assumes that invective can be extremely sensitive when it is directed at persons and objects that are seen as the embodied fulfillment of religious norms and are therefore actually sacrosanct for invective. The question therefore arises as to how such invectives can be prepared and conducted, what conditions must be established or fulfilled for their communicative success and what defense and counterattack options they offer.
Sub-project management
© Robert Jentzsch
Principal Investigator of Project E
NameProf. Dr. Marina Münkler
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Collaborative Research Centre 1285 "Invectivity. Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement"
Collaborative Research Centre 1285 "Invectivity. Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement"
Staff members
© Albrecht Dröse
Research assistant
NameMr Dr. Albrecht Dröse
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Visitor address:
W/48, Room 117, 1. Floor Wiener Str. 48
01219 Dresden
Office hours:
Sprechstunden siehe OPAl-Kurs sowie nach Vereinbarung
© René Plaul
Former Postdoctorate Research Associate in Project E
NameDr. Felix Prautzsch
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© Robert Jentzsch
Postgraduate Research Associate in Project E
NameLisa-Marie Richter
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Collaborative Research Centre 1285 "Invectivity. Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement"
Collaborative Research Centre 1285 "Invectivity. Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement"
Visiting address:
Falkenbrunnen, Room 273 Chemnitzer Straße 48b
01187 Dresden
© Robert Jentzsch
Postdoctorate Research Associate in Project E
NameDr. Antje Sablotny
Representative of the Staff Members
Student Assistants
Theresa Haugk & Sophia Michalsky
