Fields of research

Due to the interdisciplinary composition of the Chair's staff, the fields of research are also rich in perspectives. The various focal points are united by the question of the aesthetics, theory and political function of their subjects. Together, they form the basis for the dynamic research context of the Chair of Media Studies and Modern German Literature.

Invectivity and Theater

As part of the SFB 1285 In vectivity, sub-project K, led by Lars Koch and Tanja Prokic, investigated theater, performance and action art from the 20th century to the present in their dual constitution as social and aesthetic spaces of communication, in which invectives are realized as a cultural practice in a model-like manner and framed by the media. It assumes that it is precisely here that (de)evaluative interaction and invective constellations and processes become affectively, perceptively and reflexively tangible. The TP focuses on the theater of discrimination as an institution, in its mediality and its affective politics, in its constellation to other social actors (media, institutions, systems), as an arena with licenses to speak and act, in its dissolution of boundaries and its discursive relationship to the social order.

Research into emotions and affect in media culture studies

Lars Koch has been working for many years on the cultural function and formatting of emotions and affects. In addition to studies on fear as a leading emotion of modernity, he is currently focusing on hate as a resource for political mobilization with regard to social media and social polarization.

Disruption research in media culture studies

As part of the ERC Starting Grant research group "The Principle of Disruption. A Figure Reflecting Complex Societies", the various aspects of disruption have been the subject of debate since 2013. In addition to aspects of the history of knowledge, the main aim is to examine the forms and functions of a catastrophic imaginary more closely with a view to popular culture as a medium of social self-description. In addition, research into the category of disruption refers to practices of discourse interruption that allow the effects of denormalization to be observed as moments of subversion and critique.