The project deals with Verzicht and its symbolizations in the cultural and intellectual history of the USA since its founding. Based on the observation that the settler colonialist discourse of the »land of opportunity« and unlimited resources crosses out renunciation—and that even the term itself is difficult to translate adequately into English—the project reconstructs alternative discursive formations that highlight the significance of Verzicht in the cultural imaginary and develops a typology of different renunciation scenarios. A systematization identifies utopian and dystopian narrative patterns as well as different practices of renunciation, e.g., renunciation of power, violence, love, and consumption. With regard to current developments and issues, the ecological dimension of Verzicht plays a special role, as does the question of the continuous suppression and denial of options and requirements for renunciation in the name of self-determination and »freedom.«

Heike Paul is Chair of American Studies, cultural and literary studies, at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg and a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich. She was director of the Bavarian American Academy for many years. Her research focuses on American myths, affect studies, in particular sentimentality and emotions in political communication, as well as contemporary American literature and popular culture. Teaching and research stays have taken her to numerous institutions, including Harvard University, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Dartmouth College, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, the Thomas Mann House, the University of Zurich, and the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg. In 2018, she was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation. She currently heads the Global Sentimentality Project and is spokesperson for the DFG Research Training Group Sentimentality in Literature, Culture, and Politics.