Research Area 3
Rules and Rulebreaking in Art, Music, and Literature in the Age of Enlightenment (1650–1850) (Décultot, Fulda)
The Age of Enlightenment initially remained shaped by earlier cultural obligations and rules of rhetoric, poetics, and musical and artistic theory, by the forms of production and communication of older models of erudition, and by the sphere of influence of French courtly culture. These rules underwent a fundamental transformation in the name of sensualism and sentimentalism, the cult of the genius and originality, naturalness and scientificness. Simultaneously, the growth of the public sphere and the commercial market permanently altered the structure of the res publica litteraria, the system of the arts and rules of behaviour. This restructuring will be investigated in connection with reflections about norms, changes in cultural and aesthetic practices, and the debates which continue to the present about classicism as a historical or normative phenomenon.