Based on examples of selected writings of consolation by Johann von Besser, Supreme Master of Ceremonies of Brandenburg-Prussia, Mathias Palm's study addresses the paradigmatic form of dialogue in early modern literature. Setting out from a model of the general connection between norms and deviation, the dialogical paradigm of the study is oriented to the courtly social categories of ceremony and representation. At the media level a dialogically conceived dispositive of power treats this social constitutiveness as a part of a discourse of power and a means of participation and legitimation. The message is mediated in particular through body images representing social or physical structures. Besser's Epicedia, or funeral sermons, have a regulatory effect, functioning as indicators of political, or courtly, behaviour and pointing to intended power constellations through the body images, thus ensuring the stability of the system and social discipline in the courtly world.

Dr. Mathias Palm betreut zurzeit den Bereich E-Learning am Institut für Germanistik der Universität Potsdam.