Family Matters. Figures of Allegiance and Release

DFG: Research Training Group 2845

The first project of its kind in literary studies, the Research Training Group "Family Matters. Figures of Allegiance and Release", funded by the German Research Foundation, explores 'family matters' in comparative and theoretical approaches, and with a view to their historical and cultural specificities. It aims to work towards a systematic account of the literary paradigms and discourses that produce 'the familial' and so establish a comprehensive archaeology (Foucault) of the family imaginary. At the same time, it addresses and questions historical master narratives which – though scientifically falsified – continue to shape myths of the bourgeois nuclear family.
The Research Training Group is an interdisciplinary promotional instrument for the qualification of early career researchers in the fields of General and Comparative Literature, English Studies, German Studies, Classical Philology, Nordic Philology, Romance Studies, Slavic Philology, Cultural Studies and Gender Studies. A complementary training and qualification program, which is divided into four phases (concept phase, profile phase, elaboration phase and final phase) supports doctoral researchers during their individual dissertation projects and also furthers the development of interdisciplinary key competencies.

Web: www.familymatters.uni-muenchen.de