The professorship represents German literary studies from the 18th century to the present under cultural-historical, epistemological and comparative aspects. In doing so, its linguistic and cultural theoretical emphases are understood as a horizon of reflection for the factual in the span of the possible. "Theoria cum praxi": the tense interplay of thought and action that characterizes history also affects modern arts. The professorship is dedicated to the corresponding consequences that continue to affect literature today in questions of aesthetics, mimesis, and rhetoric and their systemic relevance.

"Theoria cum praxi" - This also applies to the teaching at the professorship. It is significantly involved in the cultural studies bachelor's and master's programs, the doctoral program of the faculties of cultural studies and education, as well as in German studies in the teacher training programs. Inter-faculty research colleges are "The Sciences of the Arts" and "Philosophy, Literature and History".

The focus of research is on a transdisciplinary project, the Thesaurus of Literary Figures of Speech and Figurative Terms. In joint publications, in panel discussions, and at conferences, writers, artists, and scholars discursively model a poetic relational structure of linguistic evidence. In complementarity to Aby Warburg's "Atlas", language proves to be an indispensably dynamic, relational system beyond normative definitions.