Our work seeks to further the study of culture, literature, and art from the vantage point of the concept and theory of form. One of our research focuses lies on the normative orders of poetics before 1800, in particular the rules of genre, and their subsequent transformation in the art and literature of the modern age; another focus lies on modern theories of form and their impact on aesthetic and cultural processes of form-production. It is our aim to investigate the historical and systematic mutual implication of prescriptive poetics and form-theory, to explore the ways in which they illuminate each other, while also analysing the interrelation of the theory and practice of form.
Current projects and planned activities at the research unit address the question of poetic rules; the interrelation of the circulation of forms, composition, and media formats in performance and the poetics and literature of form around 1800; and problems of materiality and formatting in 18th century treatises on poetics.