The project “Figurations of Inspiration, Authorisation, and Auratisation in English Literature” is part of the research unit “De/Sacralisation in Texts” (FOR 2828) and investigates strategies and methods of sacralisation and desacralisation in English literature that refer to the religious concept of inspiration and use (further) methods of (self-)authorisation, e.g. the use of auratic language. Sacralisation will be analysed together with processes of desacralisation, i.e. the questioning of divine origin and involvement in the human production of texts. A particular emphasis will be on the Early Modern period, in which literary processes of sacralisation are prevalent. Such processes take place despite (or because of) a double constraint, namely, on the one hand, the restriction of sacred authority to the Bible, and, on the other hand, restrictions of literature (and drama in particular) concerning religious topics.
