Fields of research

Thanks to the interdisciplinary composition of the staff members at the Chair, the research areas are also rich in perspectives. The various areas of focus are united by an exploration of the aesthetics, theory, and political function of their subjects. Together, they form the foundation for the dynamic research environment of the Chair of Media Studies and Modern German Literature.

Invectives and Theater

As part of the SFB 1285 Invectivity, the subproject K Theater, led by Lars Koch and Tanja Prokic, Performance, and Action Art from the 20th century to the present, examining them in their dual nature as both social and aesthetic spaces of communication, in which invective is exemplarily realized as a cultural practice and framed by the media. It proceeded from the assumption that it is precisely here that evaluative and non-evaluative constellations and processes of interaction and invective become perceptible on an affective, perceptual, and reflexive level. The subproject focused on the theater of discrimination as an institution—in its mediality and its affective politics, in its relationship to other social stakeholders (media, institutions, systems), as an arena granting licenses to speak and act, in its blurring of boundaries, and in its discursive relationship to the social order.

Media Cultural Studies: Research on Emotions and Affects

Lars Koch has been studying the cultural function and shaping of emotions and affects for many years. In addition to studies on anxiety as a defining emotion of modernity, his current work—with a focus on social media and societal polarization—centers primarily on hate as a resource for political mobilization.

Media and Cultural Studies Research on Disruption

As part of the ERC Starting Grant research group “The Principle of Disruption. A Figure Reflecting Complex Societies,” various aspects of disruption were examined. In addition to aspects of the history of knowledge, the primary focus was on more closely examining the forms and functions of a catastrophic imaginary, with a view to popular culture as a medium of social self-description. Furthermore, research into the category of disruption points to practices of discourse interruption, which reveal the effects of denormalization as moments of subversion and critique.