In modern-day Humanities, questions of verbal and nonverbal politeness have been explored from many different perspectives. However, the vast majority of existing studies are restricted to the synchronic analysis of relatively stable norms of polite behaviour in historical or modern speech communities, whereas changes in politeness are only rarely looked at.

With our interdisciplinary workshop “Politeness Crossing Times and Spaces” we aim at filling this void by bringing into focus the so far rather neglected dynamic nature of politeness in the pre-modern world, which can be observed on at least two levels:

On the vertical level, norms of politeness are affected by changes in society. We want to examine how different hierarchical structures of pre-modern societies and changes thereof affect the forms and functions of politeness; and how new forms of polite behaviour retroact on a society.
On the horizontal level, different concepts of politeness interact with each other in situations of cultural and linguistic contact. Contact situations not only allow for the simple transfer of patterns from one speech community to another, but also for the emergence of entirely new forms, as transfer processes always carry a certain creative potential in them.

The objective of the workshop is to shed light on these two dimensions of politeness change from an interdisciplinary perspective; we hope to address some of the following questions:

• What sources are useful for the study of historical politeness? How are these different sources interrelated and how do they interact with each other?
• Who are the agents establishing and promoting politeness? What are the respective roles of teachers, diplomats, interpreters and travellers? Do authors reflect change and variation – especially in situations of cultural contact? How do they negotiate accommodation processes in cases of conflicting norms? How do they express and substantiate their claims of validity when postulating certain norms?
• How are claims of (cultural) superiority conveyed and negotiated through politeness? In what way do, e.g., eurocentrism and orientalism already surface in pre-modern times?
• How do the transmission and dissemination of changing norms throughout society function?
• What are the actual linguistic properties of politeness that are at stake? What concrete forms are relevant?

Workshop Programme