The Research Group Aesthetic Culture addresses literature and culture as sources to exploration of subjectivity and historicity in the light of modernisations- and globalisation processes, which characterizes modern society. Research focus is on experiences of discontinuity and fragmentation, changes over time and borders and interchange of aesthetical shapes and cultures. The subject field is literature, visual arts, film and media art, however also a growing cultural aestheticising. With the popularisation of art and commercialisation, classic aesthetic and cultural analysis is challenged.
Experiences of discontinuity and modernity draw a cross-disciplinary field, where historical movements, style changes in art and philosophical breakthroughs play closely together. The group’s projects and activities focus on exploring how aesthetic works both articulate and take part in these fragmentations. A recurring discussion in the research group therefore also concerns the aesthetic perception and experience: Wherein lies its specificity? And how can the humanities benefit from aesthetic perspectives, which might lead to comprehension of the individual (the I, the subject, the self) as well as society (modernisation, globalisation, social order and power)?  
The group’s work is organised in thematic research seminars with participation from lecturers from outside. Examples of previous seminar themes are “The literary Hero”, “Literature and Subjectivity”,”What is Good Literature”, “Art and Knowledge”, “The Novel and Knowledge”, “Aesthetic Topologies: Limits, Discontinuity and Mobility”. At the moment the research Group is working on the theme: “Word and Picture”.