Leibniz Center for Literary

and Cultural Research

The Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) is a humanities institute for literary studies in interdisciplinary contexts that draw from a cultural studies framework. Its methods also engage with the structural transformations within historical-hermeneutic subject areas that have taken place in recent decades. In contrast to the study of literature at universities, predominantly organized by nationality, the ZfL fosters a broad concept of literature. It uses interdisciplinary tools to fundamentally question the etiology of various literary concepts, their potential for the future, and the relationship between literature and other arts or cultural practices. While literature remains a primary object of investigation in all areas, the institute also opens up new epistemological fields, new modes of knowledge, and new sets of questions in other disciplines. As a relatively small, independent institute, the ZfL sees itself as a vital contributor to national and international research communities and as a critical observer of an ever-changing academic landscape.
Literature is the subject of research in all areas, but also opens up access to other fields of knowledge and forms of cognition. This opens up new questions that fall outside the perspective of individual disciplines or cannot be formulated within them. The ZfL's research is geared towards current pressing questions of the present, which are placed in larger historical contexts. As a relatively small, independent institute, the ZfL sees itself as a source of inspiration for national and international research contexts, but also as a critical observer of a changing academic landscape.