Watchful readings: hermeneutical attentiveness in the 19th century literary culture of vigilance (A09*)

This project examines collaborative practices of vigilant reading that emerged in the first half of the 19th century in state institutions, the book market, and the literate public. Using sources such as private libraries, correspondences, diaries, publishers' archives, as well as censorship files and trial records, the project asks what cultures of vigilant reading emerged in the tension between state media policy, the literary market, and the public sphere. The project reconstructs, for the first time, the literary culture of vigilantism of this period on the basis of reading practices.

DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Subproject of SFB 1369:  Cultures of Vigilance. Transformations - Spaces - Practices

Applicant Institution Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Project Heads Professor Dr. Carlos Spoerhase; Professorin Dr. Erika Thomalla