Tagespolitisches Schrifttum und die (Aus-)Formung gelehrten Wissens

Konzept und Organisation: Gabriele Haug-Moritz, External Senior Fellow und Markus Völkel, External Senior Fellow

Tagespolitisches Schrifttum und die (Aus-)Formung gelehrten Wissens (1560-1620)

Pamphleteering and the Forming of Scholarly Knowledge (1560-1620)

Although we may speak already at the beginning of the 16^th century of forms of a national and at times even supranational ‘political consciousness’ of small elite groups yet it is just the Reformation period which fully succeeds in the use of the new communicative potential by opening up a ‘mass market’ for ‘politico-theological’ literature. France and the Holy Roman Empire – besides Italy – took the lead in this development. During the second half of the century this ‘front of opinions’ was about to disintegrate into two parts: first the political literature of the day (statements, letters, expert’s memoranda , ‘Hystories’ and ‘true reports’, pamphlets and refutations, political as well as religious songs); second –as C. Zwierlein did show – an increasingly numerous and sophisticated ‘reflective literature’ comprising the statements of princely counselors, ambassadors, travelers, merchants, members of the religious orders including the first editors of journals and political commentaries.

The princely states contributed considerably to the genesis of the second branch making use – often because of lack of controlling instances – of the first branch of information literature. Consequently in the sector of ‘public communication’ we find dammed up an immense reservoir of ‘opinion, information, pleas, histories, deliberations, polemics, reports, ‘novelties’, travel reports, broadsheets and comments. This resource posed an immense challenge to the traditional system of knowledge, its routine methods of coping with information and its conventional literary genres. It soon turns out that not everything could be processed (negative selection) but was equally compelling that it was not feasibly to avoid processing completely. Consequently the old ways of generating knowledge have to be adjusted and new genres – the journal, political romance – have to be devised.

Our conference concentrates on transitions, mechanisms of selection, transfers, the media and modes of receptions that come into effect during the processes that turn this new knowledge flowing in equal measure out of opinion, emotions and ‘hard facts’ into knowledge based either on traditionally acknowledged or just recently adopted criteria. By this way the numerous crisis in France and the Empire (Guerres de Religion, Turkish Wars, the Netherlands struggle for independence) can be converted into stable interpretations and lay the ground for comprehensive debates, for example the relationship between religious denominations, Church and State, tyranny and political constitutions, one’s own culture and the culture of ‘the other’. Above all we want to explore the attitude of the more traditional public and academic elites towards the new types of knowledge, information, opinion and ‘monuments of affect’ as they intensify the presence of a ‘recent past’ in a way unthinkable in pre-reformatory times.

Programme (PDF)