What is Literature? Investigations into the Historical Development of the Philosophy of Literary Writing


This project of investigation contributes to the recently renewed research field of “philosophy of literature”. The aim is to analyze the forms of self-reflection within literary writings with regard to the historical development of conceptual techniques from the early modern times until today. The philosophical question raised by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1948 “What is Literature?” is specified according to a genuinely literary point of view: How, through which generic, stylistic or narrative techniques a literary text considers its nature, its essence or its discursive function (according to the basic theoretical concepts of a particular epoch)? Is the praxis of writing that has been called “literature” during the 18th century (to distinguish it from scientific writing) describable as an epistemological problem? To what extent the borderlines between philosophical and literary conceptions of literature can be conceived?


Principal investigators
Kamecke, Gernot PD Dr. (Details) (other Employees)

Participating organisational units of HU Berlin
Romance Literatures (OKZ: 524012)

Financer
DFG Heisenberg

Duration of project
Start date: 01/2019
End date: 04/2022

Research Areas
Literary Studies

Last updated on 2022-12-11 at 05:30