Prof.in Dr.in Theresa Heyd (English linguistics, University of Heidelberg), Dr.in habil. Heide Volkening (Modern German Literary Studies, University of Greifswald)

The project aims to develop a theory of cringe in which sociolinguistic and literary studies perspectives are combined and shed mutual light on each other. We understand cringe as an ambivalent pleasure in discursive practices and aesthetic representations that are perceived as embarrassing, inappropriate or shameful.

As an affective and embodied response of shamefulness, cringe phenomena and their descriptions are particularly well suited for observing current negotiations of social conventions and norms that are formed along intersectional differentiations such as gender and class.

Four dimensions form the cornerstones of our approach:

1) Cringe as a phenomenon that occurs in and with language and is influenced by mediatised and digitised publics in present popular culture and social media;

2) Cringe as the transmission of a perception or affect of irritation, provocation and discomfort;

3) Cringe as a phenomenon and discourse of differentiation, not only as a youth word with a view to age as a category of difference, but concerning more complex intersectional differentiations

4) Cringe as a negotiation of taste(lessness), encompassing aesthetic reactions and judgements as well as meta-discursive reflections.

Our project will explore and link these aspects in a closely interlinked consideration of literary and digital phenomena from the perspective of aesthetic and sociolinguistic theory.

Project funding: VW Foundation, funding line: "Aufbruch - Neue Forschungsräume für die Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaftens", https://portal.volkswagenstiftung.de/search/projectPDF.do?projectId=10584

Further information: www.uebercringe.de

Contact in Greifswald: heide.volkeninguni-greifswaldde