Aesthetic Practices

How do culture, artistic institutions, and even the sciences promote aesthetic practices, and which practices do they bring about? Which political, social, and ecological issues are privileged as a result, and which are neglected? How do these questions influence the obsolescence of styles of thinking and literary genres? And how do the materiality and mediality of aesthetic phenomena shape reflection on these questions?

The projects in this research field address these and further questions using artefacts from literature, film, and theatre. Even beyond the arts in the narrow sense, we consider it fundamental to the study of cultures, past and present, to examine the aesthetics of practices. This also applies to our own academic practices, which is why we emphasize self-reflection through a praxeological perspective on literary and cultural research.

Of particular interest to our projects are the affects that arise or result from the use of aesthetic practices. This is the case in the study of comedy as well as in the examination of the reparative, compensatory, and sometimes therapeutic function of aesthetic practices and the works they produce. KWI researchers are also focussed on the way in which aesthetic judgments and, consequently, criticism play a role here.

Our institute and this research field provide not only a forum for the cultural study of contemporary literature, but also a space for literary life, where literature can be experienced as a practice. Readings and book presentations have taken place at KWI since 2018, as well as the spring conference of the German Academy for Language and Literature in 2024, and  events within the Literatürk festival.