Comparative Practices

Comparisons not only prove fundamental in the epistemological foundation of modernity (Foucault, Luhmann), but they fulfil a central function in social life and the production of art. Taking a cue from the Practice Turn in sociology, the contributors are investigating the role of comparative practices in the formation of eighteenth-century literature and culture. The book conceives of social practices of comparing as being entrenched in networks of circulation of bodies, artefacts, discourses, and ideas, and aims to investigate how such practices ordered and changed British literature and culture during the long eighteenth century.

Nadine Böhm-Schnitker (PD Dr. phil.), geb. Böhm, lehrt Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg sowie an der Universität Konstanz. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen neben der Erforschung der Interdependenzen religiöser und kultureller Diskurse insbesondere im Bereich der Erzählliteratur der Gegenwart und des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.

Marcus Hartner is a senior lecturer in English studies at Bielefeld University. He is an associate member and former principal investigator of the Collaborative Research Centre 1288 »Practices of Comparing« funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). His main fields of research encompass the study of narrative and the intersection of race, gender, and class in early modern literature and culture. Among his further research interests are the study of migration literature, maritime humanities, and Anglo-Muslim relations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.