GRK 706:  Cultural Hermeneutics: Reflections of Difference and Transdifference

• Subject Area: Linguistics
• Term: from 2001 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273297

In the period of both globalization and the renewed interest of various groups in their cultural particularity, questions of difference (according to ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, sexual preference, class etc.) and of intercultural communication have become standard topics of research. Difference can be studied synchronically but also diachronically, i.e. with regard to changing or consecutive phases of individual and social development. The Graduiertenkolleg extends this scholarly perspective by focussing on what we term transdifference: the overlap of identifications, the combination of loyalties across boundaries and hence of identity facets resulting from the actual multiplicity of phenomena of difference and forms of interaction. Rather than concentrating on aspects of coherence and delimitation, the study group re-examines the terms culture, interculturality and (cultural) hermeneutics with the aim of transcending existing models of identity and alterity, while taking aspects like the power of definition and the order of societal organization into consideration. In this context transdifference is to be understood as an umbrella term for phenomena like hybridity, transculturality and transidentity (referring to systems as well as individuals).
The projects within American, British, Canadian and Media Studies approach the subject through literary and media productions as well as the pertinent procedures of communication. The projects in Political Science and Sociology focus on the self-interpretation of social principles of order and the interaction or translation of socio-political cultures. The projects in the field of Theology analyze religious meaning and identity formations in the context of processes of (de-)canonization as well as of transdifferentiation for instance in the field of ethics.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Doris Feldmann; Privatdozent Dr. Mathias Hildebrandt; Professor Dr. Kay Kirchmann; Professorin Dr. Antje Kley; Professor Dr. Michael Lackner; Dr. Klaus Lösch; Professorin Dr. Heike Paul; Professor Dr. Joachim Renn; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schoberth; Professor Dr. Henri Schoenmakers; Professor Dr. Hans G. Ulrich; Dr. Ulrich Wenzel
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Clemens Kauffmann, since 4/2009