Constellations between Literature and Law in the Spanish Enlightenment

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Ignacio Czeguhn; Professor Dr. Christian von Tschilschke
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551540819

The interdisciplinary project, led by a literary scholar and a legal historian, deals with the interference of literature and law in the era of the Spanish Enlightenment. It is based on the observation that the most important representatives of the Spanish Enlightenment movement, many of whom happened to be lawyers and writers at the same time, were convinced that the reform of Spanish society had to start with a fundamental revision of its legal system. This conviction, which was based on the rationality of law and the idea of progress and therefore inevitably came into tension with the absolutist monarchy’s claim to power, permeated both the creative literature and the popular literature aimed at a broader public, as well as the specialised legal discourse that developed among law scholars. The project concentrates on two particularly meaningful constellations that are closely related to each other due to their temporal and content-related connection. In theoretical and methodological terms, the project is based on the basic assumptions and complementary methods of sociological systems theory, historical discourse analysis and the poetology of knowledge. The first field of work covers the period of despotismo ilustrado under Charles III (1759-1788) and is directed towards the most important reform project of the 18th century: the theory and practice of agrarian reform. It analyses the complex relationship between the creative literature, the theoretical literature on the agrarian question and the relevant political and practical measures: Legislation, court proceedings, settlement projects, property and tenure issues. The second field of work, constitutional culture and its discourse, refers to the discussion of the first democratic Spanish constitution of Cádiz (1812) in a variety of text types against the background of the French occupation and the War of Independence of 1808-1814, focussing on the rights of women as equal actors in legal policy issues and the problem of social and political equality and inequality. With regard to the entire research project, the overarching thesis stating that the relationship between equality and inequality developed – under the influence of ideas of natural law, the suppression or persistence of Christian theological justifications, the spread of cultural relativist thinking, but also the emerging crisis of the estate-based society and the absolutist form of government – into a key difference in the assessment of social issues, will be examined. By placing the focus on the interface between literature and law, the project promises to open up a new perspective on the central approach of Enlightenment reform efforts in Spain.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants