Elisabeth Lienert

Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Lienert is a Professor specializing in Early German Literature (texts from beginnings to c. 1600), examining cultural, historical, media, and discursive contexts within European frameworks through philological and narrative lenses.

Her pioneering research centers on contradiction as a narrative principle in pre-modernity, investigating contradictory conceptualizations, self-contradictions, counter-discursivity, and narrative breaks. Current work includes the DFG-funded project "Narrating Breaks: The Heterogeneity of Early German Prose" (with Thomas Althaus), exploring how texts negotiate contradictory knowledge systems and norms while balancing coherence with alteritarian logics.

Lienert advocates for recognizing pre-modern traditions of contradiction tolerance and the media-induced alterity of premodern literature. Her research group emphasizes historical perspectives on contradiction textuality, welcoming proposals on German-language texts up to 1600.