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The Global Sentimentality Project is conducted by a network of scholars interested in the sentimental. The aesthetics and politics of the sentimental are examined in different research fields. The project facilitates exchange and collaboration across disciplines in workshops, lecture series, and public talks as well as in joint publications, among other formats. Moreover, our program offers short-term fellowships for junior and senior scholars worldwide at FAU Erlangen and publishes the book series „Global Sentimentality“ with transcript. To contact us and to learn more, please write to project-sentimental@fau.de.
What makes us cry? Where do we allow ourselves to cry? And when do we enjoy being moved to tears? In other words, what are the forms and functions of the sentimental? The Global Sentimentality Project examines how the sentimental unfolds its power as an aesthetic narrative strategy, as a practice of crisis management, and as a technology of political mobilization. Our understanding of the sentimental revises the stigmatization of the term in popular parlance and extends its meaning beyond a set of literary texts. The sentimental shapes aesthetic experiences of all kinds. It operates in different cultural settings and in various political contexts where it has been analyzed as either facilitating or obstructing change. The Global Sentimentality Project brings together scholars from around the world and from different disciplines in order to compare the workings of the sentimental across cultures, social formations, and historical periods.
