Gaps in Time. Medieval Artifacts in their temporal constellations

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Henrike Haug
• Subject Area: Art History ; German Medieval Studies (Medieval German Literature) ; Medieval History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491069996

The network sets out to re-describe how the middle ages (800 to 1500) dealt with different pasts, more specifically: with artefacts of preceding times. The phenomena we want to address have been discussed under various terms within the disciplines. On the one hand, there are historical conceptions such as renovatio, auctoritas or translatio. Modern concepts on the other hand, such as copy, quotation, adaptation, reception, or retro-style, with which the humanities try to grasp the conscious reflection of the past in their own present, are also part of this. The network discusses the constructions and conceptions of temporality associated with the practice of using "old" objects for political and religious purposes. To grasp the various comparable phenomena, the network uses the ambivalent notion of the concept of gaps in time (Zeitfuge: the German allows a play with the double meaning of Fuge as both fugue and gap), since it can be used to describe fractions and yet signify cohesion. We are interested in questions of aesthetic perception and appreciation expressed in the conscious actualization und constant visibility of the old and the potentiality that lay in the connections and adaptations thus created. These gaps in time are to be analysed in the interdisciplinary network and placed within their own theoretical framework.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Cornelia Logemann