SFB 496: Symbolic Communication and Social Value Systems from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution

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Research at the collaborative research centre 496 centres on the process of symbolic communication in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, and the value systems it was based upon. The main areas of politics, law, religion and everyday communication are studied in relation to literature, the arts and philosophy as the main media for the reception, reflection and projection of relevant phenomena. Common goal for all subprojects is to determine what type of reflections and what degree of reasoning can be found in and attributed to the different forms of symbolic communication and the way they convey value systems. Thereby the prevailing opinion in sociology and ethnology is tested which sees symbolic communication as void of rational qualities and reflection. The thirteen subprojects study the central issue historically (topics are conflict and peace rituals, reception ceremonies, rank and status and their representation as well as transition rites in Early Modern Times and around the French Revolution); in literature (court plays and didactic literature); in theology (ritual elements in medieval liturgy); in the arts ('virtus' in artistic theory); and in philosophy (the ethics of virtue).