Literature as Equity in British Literary History: Modernism (C02)

• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 403589434

The project focuses on the dissolution of the Court of Chancery and the concomitant disillusionment in literature regarding its own power for social criticism and systemic change at the fin de siècle. It seems that equity as both idea and institution is not only buried deep in the legal system, but also ceases to play a major role in literary fiction at the time. Modern literature begins to turn inward in self-reflection on its very own form and the modern novel especially seems to question its own function in society. The project traces equity’s residues at this crucial moment in British cultural history with a special focus on the consequences of the end of Empire.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1385: Law and Literature
• Applicant Institution: Universität Münster
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Oliver Lepsius; Professor Dr. Klaus Stierstorfer