This project is intended to represent a contribution to a history of the subject, as it can be explored through the convergence of different fields of knowledge. It examines the close connection between the definition of the subject and that of property in the 18th and early 19th centuries: from Locke to Hegel, property is primarily thought of in terms of the individual and a philosophy of the subject; conversely, the ability to experience oneself through what one appropriates is also a central defining feature of the subject. At the same time, this is in tension with property as the justification of the social contract (in Rousseau). On the one hand, the project will examine the theoretical justifications of property and, on the other, its economic and social implications as reflected in contemporary literature (e.g. in the figure of the robber). All these moments come together to form a specific constellation in the history of subjectivity.

Associate Researcher at ifk

Sandra Janßen is a comparatist and historian of science. She currently works as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Erfurt, where since January 2024 she is leading a DFG funded network on the history of the subject as defined by the history of the human sciences (in particular, psychology and various social sciences). Previous positions include teaching at the Free University of Berlin as well as visiting and deputy professorships at the University of Chicago, the University of Vienna and the University of Bonn.

In addition to the history of the subject, her research focuses on the ties between the history of knowledge and literary history, more precisely the history of psychology and 19th and 20th century German and French literature. She is about to complete her second book, which relates psychology, political theory and literature of the 1930s and 1940s to each other under the label of a »totalitarian subject«.