Sibyls & Prophets. Constellations of Figural Knowledge in Premodernity (B08*)

• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191249397

The project examines the structural conditions for the transfer and transformation of knowledge that can be witnessed in the cultural practice of pairing antique-pagan sibyls with biblical prophets, as it has occurred since late antiquity. The project pays particular attention to the plurality of modes of knowledge to which these pairings draw attention, with a special focus on the medial and material forms in which the respective forms of knowledge are staged. It investigates how the pairing of these culturally powerful figures generates a whole range of epistemic ascriptions, semantic encodings and transcultural appropriations. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which the encounters between sibyls and prophets result in complex entanglements of discontinuous temporalities – e. g. pagan time vs. Christian eschatology – and in the creation of semantic overlaps between the two different and yet intimately related sets of figures.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 980: Episteme in Motion - Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period
• Applicant Institution: Freie Universität Berlin
• Project Heads: Professorin Dr. Anne Eusterschulte, since 7/2020; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Schneider, since 7/2020