Leibniz Center for Literary Studies

and cultural research

The ZfL is a humanities institute for the study of literature in interdisciplinary contexts and from a cultural studies perspective. In this way, it also methodologically follows the structural change in historical-hermeneutic subjects in recent decades. In contrast to the predominantly national-philologically organized literary studies at the universities, the ZfL not only has a broad concept of literature, but also, in the form of interdisciplinary basic research, investigates the genesis of various literary concepts, their future possibilities and the relationship between literature and other arts or cultural practices.

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.