Research projects
The department is involved both in larger research projects co-financed by external institutions such as the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and in smaller projects linked to individual researchers*, such as doctoral projects (DOC, DOC-Team) funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).
Ongoing projects
EVZ
Remapping Refugee Stories 1933-1953
The project "Remapping Refugee Stories 1933-1953," funded by the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future (EVZ), is led by Prof. Dr Paula Wojcik in collaboration with Prof. Dr Werner Nell. The project aims to deepen our understanding of the history of European refugees from 1933 to 1953 by collecting and analyzing previously unknown testimonies of Holocaust survivors and publishing them on an interactive website. In addition to the refugee stories, the project will produce educational materials for schools, several films, a graphic novel, and a podcast.
ÖAW-DOC
Narrating Provenance. Questions of Origins, Translocation, and Restitution in Contemporary Literature
Dissertation project of Theresa Mallmann, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2024-2028), supervised by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Achim Hölter.
#GlobalBernhard
#GlobalBernhard – Thomas Bernhard im literarischen Widerhall
Website project on the international productive reception of Thomas Bernhard under the direction of Dr. Juliane Werner, in cooperation with the International Thomas Bernhard Society (ITBG).
Previous Projects
ÖAW-DOC
Occidentalist Discourses in Turkish Literature and Politics after 1980
Dissertation project of Johanna Chovanec, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2018-2021), supervised by Gisela Prochazka-Eisl and Petr Kucera.
ÖAW-DOC
Das österreichische literarische Feld zwischen 1945 und 1973. Eine Analyse der Feldgrenzen und Feldeffekte aus literatursoziologischer Perspektive
Dissertation project of Christoph Leschanz, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2020–2022), supervised by Univ-Prof. Dr. Norbert Bachleitner.
FWF
LudwigTieck's Library. Anatomy of a Romantic and Comparatist Book Collection
The aim of this project under the direction of Prof. Dr. Achim Hölter is the virtual reconstruction of the famous library (approx. 9000 volumes) of the German romantic Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853). Tieck's book collection – so the central thesis – represents a scholarly private and poet library, which embodies in an ideal way the basis for reading and writing methods, which must be described as genuinely comparative...
ÖAW-DOC
Beyond Ethnic Chick Lit. Labelingpraktiken neuer Welt-Frauen*-Literaturen im transkontinentalen Vergleich
Dissertation project of Sandra Folie, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2016–2019), supervised by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Achim Hölter.
ÖAW-DOC
Der Regionalkrimi. Gattungstheorie und -geschichte eines vernachlässigten Genres
Dissertation project of Andrea Kreuter, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2015–2018), supervised by Univ-Prof. Dr. Achim Hölter and Univ-Prof. Dr. Wynfrid Kriegleder.
OENB Jubiläumsfond
Censorship of Italian Literature in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750–1918
At the interface between Italian literary history and the history of the Habsburg Monarchy, politically marked by the contradiction between unification efforts and nationalist tendencies, our project attempts to provide a comprehensive account of the way book censorship has shaped and influenced the literary field of the time, with a particular focus on the phase of Austrian hegemony in Lombardo-Venetia 1815–1859/66.
ÖAW-DOC
Decadence and Zionism
Dissertation project of Christina Marie-Charlotte Hoffmann, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2014–2016), supervised by Univ-Prof. Dr. Norbert Bachleitner.
ÖAW-DOC-Team
Thinking Space – An interdisciplinary approach to the spatial dimension of Ambient Intelligence: Symmetries and asymmetries in the interaction between humans and objects
Dissertation project of Julia Grillmayr – together with Louise Beltzung Horvath & Tanja Traxler – DOC-team fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2012–2016), supervised by Univ-Prof. Dr. Norbert Bachleitner (Comparative Literature, Univ. Wien) and Univ.-Prof. Dr. Konrad Paul Liessmann (Philosophy, Univ. Wien).
k-lab/IN.MAP KG
Viennavigator – Mapping Literature
The project, led by Prof. Norbert Bachleitner, is dedicated to the geo-temporal location of literary fragments. In cooperation with the Institute for European and Comparative Linguistics and Literature of the University of Vienna, the agency k-lab and the company IN.MAP KG, a platform is being developed which aims to achieve two primary objectives in a reference implementation for the Vienna area:
- The creation of a scientific database that supports literary and cultural research
- The provision of an interface for the interested public that provides entertaining access to the knowledge base.
ÖAW-DOC
The Delicate Place: Das Motiv des Fensters als Öffnung ins Innere in Romanen und Erzählungen seit 1945
Dissertation project of Gianna Zocco, DOC fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) at the Department of Comparative Literature (2011–2013), supervised by Univ-Prof. Dr. Norbert Bachleitner.
FWF
Austrian lists of prohibited books 1750–1848
The database for the registration of books banned in Austria between 1750 and 1848 dates back to a research project supported by the FWF as P13220, in which between 1999 and 2001 the electronic registration and classification of banned entries was started under the direction of Prof. Norbert Bachleitner. Dr. Daniel Syrovy supplemented and completed these under the title "Österreichische Listen verbotener Bücher 1750-1848" (P22320) in the years 2010 to 2012. Further information can be found here.