The art of memory has, since its inception in antiquity, relied on unsettling imagery to help memorise facts by causing emotional shock. Rooted in rhetoric, the poetics and aesthetics of the abject image had an impact that extended far beyond their context of origin. Their manifold resonances in the literature, art and culture of the early modern period are addressed in the essay collection Das abjekte Bild. Erschütterungstechniken zwischen den Medien und Künsten der Frühen Neuzeit, jointly edited by two members of Research Area 1: "Competing Communities" – Anita Traninger (former co-director of EXC 2020) and Sergius Kodera (former Senior Fellow at the Cluster).

Complex processes of allusion, transposition and (re-)coding are examined in relation to phenomena ranging from the lactating Virgin Mary and the farcical dramatic persona of the braggadocio soldier to depictions of graphic violence in the woodcuts accompanying an early modern international bestseller. In addition to papers by Traninger and Kodera, the volume contains contributions by former and current Cluster members Maraike Di Domenica, Bernhard Huss, Nicolas Longinotti and Luca Lil Wirth.

Anita Traninger and Sergius Kodera, eds. Das abjekte Bild. Erschütterungstechniken zwischen den Medien und Künsten der Frühen Neuzeit. Poesis 13. Paderborn: Brill | Fink, 2026.