Diachronic Metalepsis Network

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Thomas Kuhn-Treichel
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 496137619

Over the past two decades, metalepses (transgressions of narrative levels) have experienced a critical boom in different disciplines of literary studies. What makes this topic so attractive, apart from an increasing interest in narratological approaches in general, is the fact that metaleptical phenomena allow to discuss key concepts of narrating. What exactly does ‘narrating’ mean and how does a narrator act? On which levels does narrating take place and how are these levels connected? How does the storyworld relate to reality? By transgressing real or imagined boundaries, metalepses shed light on a central objective of narrative texts: to bridge the border between the narrated and the narrating world. In this way, metalepses emerge as inherently (at least implicitly) metanarrative devices.Influential studies have drawn a contrast between predominantly illusion-disturbing metalepses in modern literatures and predominantly illusion-compatible metalepses in ancient and medieval literatures. Phenomena that appear comparable from a formal point of view can evidently have different functions in different texts and periods. Many scholars have therefore expressed the need of a diachronic and/or interdisciplinary approach especially for the study of metalepses. On the other hand, it begins to emerge that the breadth of the concept, the fluidity characterizing the phenomenon, and the detailed work required by each usage make it hardly possible to write a meaningful and comprehensive ‘history of metalepsis’. In response to this double challenge, we want to launch the Diachronic Metalepsis Network, in which literary scholars from different disciplines will cooperate. The network will compare texts from Greek antiquity through to contemporary literature with regard to structurally comparable phenomena in order to answer the question as to whether and how specific metaleptical phenomena take different forms and functions in different historical contexts and to what extent one can trace continuities and developments. Focussing on clearly defined metaleptical phenomena that are found in texts of different periods, we will discuss instructive passages from different historical and literary contexts in an exemplary way in order to carve out the narrative concepts the texts are premised on (including specific conditions of individual works). The overarching goal of these comparisons is to gain insights into the diachronic development and historico-cultural relativity of universal narrative concepts and principles. In this way, the comparisons address central topics of both diachronic and historical narratology.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks