PROJECT OUTLINE

In its previous stages, the project has aimed to show the broad structural and functional scope of Renaissance dialogues as a performative and, at the same time, paradigmatic textual form of the epochal theoretical discourse. It has also sought to confront the dialogical practices of the time with their contemporary, mostly normative conceptualizations. The final phase of the project will broaden the field of investigation by including more 'irregular' forms of dialogue. The overarching objective will be to define the period-specific features of the genre, as well as its scope and limitations. The latter is to be achieved by contrasting the genre with other textual forms of theoretical discourse, such as didactic poems, letters, tracts, and declamations.

From the viewpoint of the 'performatization' of theoretical discourse, conventional theories of dialogue have proven inadequate as a method of analysis for the substantial body of medieval and Renaissance dialogues. Theories of dialogue that take their cue from either the exegetical tradition of Plato's works or Bakhtin's notion of dialogism fail to grasp the potential complexity of dialogues and therefore their position within the relevant discursive system because they tend to conceive of dialogical argumentation solely as a function of the fictional conversation and its more or less felicitous 'maieutic' dynamic. We have developed an alternative theoretical model which defines the meaning of a dialogue as a complex 'macro-proposition' constituted by the interaction of and interference between two or more textual layers. In this model, the meaning of a dialogue thus cannot be reduced to any single proposition uttered by any of the speakers, even if it is presented as the dominant one. This model allows us to conceptualize systematically the scope of the genre in a manner that goes beyond traditional approaches. This applies both to notions of the performative and the indexical, both of which are pertinent to dialogue, as well as to (at times very sophisticated) strategies of self and community fashioning.

Since our model incorporates more analytical parameters than the prevalent approaches, it allows for more complex typologies within the genre as well as more detailed comparisons with other genres of theoretical discourse. The final phase of the project will prove the validity of this claim by expanding the range of our area of research. While the Ciceronian and Platonic 'mainstream' of Renaissance dialogue and the Latin Humanist recourse to Lucian have been hitherto at the core of our research activities, we now aim to explore systematically eccentric or apparently isolated vernacular dialogues largely ignored by the relevant studies: Sub-project 1 on polygraphic dialogue and the associated sub-project 1 on Giordano Bruno's dialogues address this issue and critically examine the texts' position within the discursive field of the time.

Moreover, we aim to sharpen the period-specific profile of dialogue by way of comparing it to competing or complementary genres of theoretical discourse. This has already been initiated over the course of the previous phase through a comparative analysis of Montaigne's Essais and Tasso's dialogues. The final phase will focus on a systematic comparison of dialogue and letter (sub-project 2), didactic poem (sub-project 3), declamation (sub-project 4), and tract (associated sub-project 2).

The project will include the following sub-projects:

1. Dialogue and polygraphy (Dr. Bernd Häsner)
2. Sermo absentium amicorum: Dialogical functions of the letter in Latin Humanism (Dr. Angelika Lozar)
3. Context-bound constitution of knowledge in cosmological didactic poetry and dialogue in the Renaissance (Dr. Roger Friedlein)
4. Taking sides between orality and literacy: Declamation, disputation, and dialogue in the Renaissance (Dr. Anita Traninger)

The project also includes the following associated sub-projects:

1. The functionalization of literary genres for theoretical discourse: Performing argumentation in Giordano Bruno' dialogues (Dr. Henning Hufnagel)
2. Poetological dialogue and poetological tract: Convergence and divergence (Dr. Josep Solervicens, University of Barcelona)

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