Incommensurable? The comparative self in the premodern and modern eras (11th–19th century)

The subproject is addressing a paradox in experiencing and representing subjectivity that transcends the ages: the individual is supposed to be unique and beyond comparison while simultaneously being constituted by the social framing of comparative acts. Autobiographies can be seen as a privileged form of this paradox that is explicitly based on and documented by a diversity of historical and narrative practices of comparing. The subproject, situated at the crossroads of history and literary studies, works out narratives and strategies of comparing individuality in autobiographical texts from the eleventh to twelfth and the nineteenth century.