Dialect Cultures II - Database-Launch, Editions and Aesthetics

It is often forgotten that Bavarian-Austrian dialect art flourished in both elite culture and everyday culture before 1800. Emperor Leopold I, Mozart and the Haydn brothers composed texts in dialect, `peasant` jesters played on professional and amateur stages, the people were brought into line by the ruling class or called to resist them with propaganda in dialect and areas of taboo found artistic expression in the `common` language of the people. Since May 2010, our interdisciplinary team has been attempting to make this amazing variety of forms and modes of operation visible again. It has turned out that the philological recording and processing of the material can only result in a work in progress. Accordingly, in addition to the planned edition and presentation projects, a database was created in which over 1250 works have been entered and linked to the appropriate context of knowledge. Connected with this new orientation are several tasks that make the submission of a follow-up application inevitable: 1. expanding and revising the database for the launch of an Internet site in order to appeal to as well as integrate interested parties into the research, 2. implementing book and CD projects as spin-offs of the electronic data processing and 3. developing a transdisciplinary aesthetics of dialect art before 1800 that addresses current approaches to cultural studies research and determines their applicability by examining the source materials. Through the research involved, the project Dialect Cultures I opened up the undreamed wealth of Austro-Bavarian dialect art prior to 1800. With optimal dissemination and detailed evaluation we now want to integrate as many people as possible into development of this dialect culture, which would make a comparison with other diglossic regions imperative.

These days, it is commonly forgotten that Austro-Bavarian dialect art flourished in elite culture and even more in popular counterculture before 1800. Emperor Leopold I., Mozart, and both Haydn brothers composed (sometimes original) texts in dialect; peasant jesters played on professional and amateur stages, the people were brought into line by the ruling class or called to resist them with propaganda written in dialect, and, since the early 17th century, areas of taboo were especially prone to finding artistic expression in the common language of the people.In the two projects Dialect Cultures I (2010-2013) and Dialect Cultures II (2013-2016), an interdisciplinary team attempted to make this amazing variety of forms and modes of operation visible again. Due to the fact that the philological recording and processing of the material could only be performed as work in progress, two databases were created. The internally generated work database used by the research team contains over 1300 works with 2200 variants, which are commented, edited or made visible as digital representations, and are linked to the appropriate contexts of knowledge. Once commenting and proofreading are completed and media law-related issues are resolved, these data sets are successively fed into the generally accessible presentation database (http://gams.uni-graz.at/context:dic). At the moment, about one fifth of the acquired data stock is visible and available to the interested public. The implementation of the complete data pool will presumably be concluded by the beginning of 2017. In addition to the databases and alongside further editions and articles published in printed or digital format an extensive handbook of Austro-Bavarian dialect art before 1800 has been written. In this handbook consisting of eight chapters, the most important texts of the corpus (and their authors) are presented, contextualized, and related to current research fields using an interdisciplinary approach. Together with artistic activities, follow-up projects (including school-based practical courses), and the further integration of the topic into academic teaching as well as supervision, these forms of digital and analog dissemination aim to reveal the unforeseen wealth of Austro-Bavarian dialect art to those who want to learn more about it.