With contributions from Rüdiger Campe, Anselm Haverkamp, Martin von Koppenfels, Renate Lachmann, Jutta Müller-Tamm, Sandra Richter, Monika Schmitz-Emans, Ralf Simon, and Joseph Vogl. The anthology is based on two opposing observations: On one hand, there is the current popularity of the term poetics in heterogeneous contexts of use, such as poetics of knowledge, space, dance, idleness, or power. On the other hand, its unclear significance for more narrowly defined literary studies, which have for decades drawn heavily on sociological, psychological, cultural, and media-theoretical models. So what is poetics, and how does it relate to the poetic text? What are its methodological foundations and philosophical prerequisites? What is its explanatory potential for areas of society where poetics plays a role in self-understanding?.