Objective
The project focuses on European - Jewish communication about political and socio-historical events as well as on private discussions. 10 significant correspondences written by German speaking Jewish authors in the 20th century travelling through Europe, Palestine/Israel and to the US, will be analysed to examine how an individual memory as part of the cultural area Europe is shaped. The aim of the project is to examine the interferences of individual and cultural memory in order to show that cultural memory is mainly structured through individual perception. Prof. von Jagow proposes that beyond traditions of describing cultural memory in a historic way the analyses of the letters can widen the perspective because letters as ego-documents are a medium of private and public discussion. Although it is unconventional to analyse a history of European-Jewish communication on the basis of letters, it is evident that these sources open completely new horizons on cultural memory by a theoretical approach beyond the state-of-the art which stems from transdisciplinary methodology. It is grounded in the fact that literary documents are of highest cultural and anthropological value. The project is centered in a highly advanced theoretical approach of history from below centered in emphasizing subjectivity. Works of art are of extraordinary value taking into consideration that they are both: a seismographic code of political and socio-historical reflections and a personal and aesthetic perspective upon. As an another companion of Jewish writing and thought, a history from below emphasizes on subjectivity and perception in order to enlarge the European-Jewish memory in a completely new approach to cultural remembering. This approach is of general interest not only in literary critics, but also in other disciplines like in history, history of science and medicine and ethics.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
ERC-2009-StG
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Funding Scheme
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantHost institution
99089 Erfurt
Germany