Homepage des Sonderforschungsbereichs 1385 Recht und Literatur

CRC 1385 "Law and Literature"
© Aerial Mike/AdobeStock.com

CRC 1385 "Law and Literature"
© SFB 1385

Welcome to the Collaborative Research Centre!

The Collaborative Research Centre 1385 "Law and Literature" was inaugurated at the University of Münster by the German Research Council (DFG) on July 1st, 2019. The project focuses on crucial questions concerning the relation between law and literature, the corresponding academic fields and disciplines, as well as their respective impact on culture and society. Collaborative Research Centre 1385 "Law and Literature" will end in its current form on 30.06.2024.

Literary studies and law are brought together here as equal partners in a momentous academic collaboration unprecedented in the German research field. The interdisciplinary dialogue between the two aims at investigating and mapping this particular field of research in order to uncover systematic relations between these disciplines and to document particular illustrations. The project’s objective is to clarify crucial aspects of the specific nexus of law and literature. The CRC, which looks at a potential duration of 12 years of funded research, intends to work towards a further development of our modern understanding of both law and literature. We take on the challenges implied in fundamental as well as timely questions concerning the reciprocal relation between law and literature (first 4-year period), concerning Europeanisation, migration and globalisation (second 4-year period) and medial turns (third 4-year period).

The Collaborative Research Centre 1385 includes the following disciplines from the faculties 3 and 9 at the University of Münster: literary studies, law, Jewish studies, Slavic studies, Arab and Islamic studies, economics; as well as the Institute for English and American Studies at the University of Osnabrück. There are three different project areas that include 12 individual projects in total as well as an integrated graduate school and an online encyclopedia.

Current News

| 04/2023 - CRC 1385

Examples of Jewish Responsa during the Corona Pandemic

On the SFB blog, Dr Nicola Kramp-Seidel, research assistant in subproject B04 "Rhetorical Strategies in Jewish and Islamic Legal Texts", looks at examples of Jewish responsa during the Corona pandemic: "Beyond the [...] questions of general permission to vaccinate or permission on Shabbat, another question is repeatedly found in responsa: Should one recite a blessing over receiving the vaccination?" On these and other questions, you can find the whole article here.

LMR

| 02/2023 - CRC 1385

Legitimacy of Self-citation

Joy Steigler-Herms, research assistant and doctoral candidate in subproject B02 "How and Why Do Courts Cite?", wrote a piece on the legitimacy of self-citation at the CRC's blog. Steigler-Herms says: "Zitiert das Bundesverfassungsgericht sich selbst, kann es sich um einen Gestus der Selbstermächtigung oder aber um einen Rechtsvorhersagbarkeit und Rechtssicherheit stärkenden Ausdruck einer konsistenten Rechtsprechung handeln." Here is the full text.

LMR

| 02/2023 - A02 "Literature and the Market"

'Books are different'

Cambridge University Press has published the open access book "'Are Books Still 'Different'? Literature as Culture and Commodity in a Digital Age" by Caroline Kögler and Corinna Norrick-Rühl (both head of project in A02). Challenging common notions of 'bibliodiversity,' the book reconsiders the lack of diversity in the publishing industry from a network-oriented and interdisciplinary perspective (book studies/literary studies), offering a case study of Bernardine Evaristo.

LMR

| 01/2023 - A02 "Literatur and the Market"

Children's Books and Gender

We have put two new posts on our blog in January. Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl and Annika Klempel discuss the relationship between law and children's books by using the example of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (read article). Chandni Ananth looks back on the CRC workshop "Gender Imbalance in the Book Industry. Transnational Perspectives and Knowledge Exchange" about the book markets in Australia, Scotland and Germany (read article).

LMR

| 12/2022 - ENZ

Online Encyclopedia

The bilingual encyclopedia "Enzyklopädie Recht und Literatur / Encyclopedia of Law and Literature" is online. It opens up new vistas by providing a comprehensive, reliable and authoritative reference to accumulated and current knowledge and research in the field of law and literature and is edited by Thomas Gutmann, Eberhard Ortland and Klaus Stierstorfer. We are grateful for objections, questions and hints in regard to aspects to be considered. You can reach us at encylop@uni-muenster.de. Here is the encyclopedia, here you can read a blog post on the new encyclopedia (in German).

LMR

| 10/2022 - C04 "Show-Trials. Dramatizing the Law as Social Practice"

Conference: Theater Stammheim

On the occasion of the Münster premiere of the theater installation "Der Prozess II: RAF" by krügerXweiss, the CRC organized the conference "Theater Stammheim. Verhandlungen der Roten Armee Fraktion in Recht, Literatur und Kunst". The conference analyzed the RAF members' court 'shows', the 'stage design' of Stammheim and discussed how theater deals with the 'RAF myth'. You can now listen to audio recordings of the lectures.