Franco-German Cultural Transfers: An Analysis of Research Data Through the LaCAS Platform

Abstract Whereas cultural studies focus on the specificities of individual cultural identities, transfer studies emphasize the inherent intercultural nature of those identities, based on the premise that their boundaries are necessarily and constantly moving rather than rigid. Stemming from the historical and political context of national identity constructions – from the second half of the eighteenth century to the end of the First World War – transfer studies originally revolved around Franco-German relations. As a research field, it concerns the circulation, appropriation, and transformation of cultural artefacts and practices, ideas, and in stitutions. From the perspective of digital humanities whose methodologies have renewed researchers’ understanding of scientific data, especially as far as human and social sciences are concerned, analyzing Franco-German cultural transfers raises a number of questions such as the possible reasons for the overrepresentation of art, as well as the contribution of transfer studies to the enrichment of area studies. The analyses are based on data found on the LaCAS data platform dedicated to area studies.