Learning to deal with literature in historical contexts and periods, taking into account intercultural, social or gender-specific aspects as well as canonization processes and the evaluation of literature.
Literary works stand repeatedly in court – not only in autocratic states. The motives for the accusations are quite different; sometimes these are religious, sometimes economic interests, then again political or also personal reasons. The lecture offers an exemplary overview of striking processes and the historical spectrum of Oskar Panizza's drama ‘Liebeskonzil‘ (1894) reaches up to Maxim Biller’s novel ‘Esra’ (2003). Problematic distinctions as that between the fictional ‘as if' and the violation of the privacy or between curse and insult as literary speech versus blasphemy will be considered as two sides of the same coin. Literary scandal strategies as for example in the Dadaism are also treated.
