Taking a sociological and literary-critical perspective, the project investigates the emotions and affects that characterize literary and political contestations of the principle of multicultural diversity in German public discourse. The project seeks to understand their role in a changing political culture and asks which semantic, aesthetic, rhetorical and affective forms become manifest in these contestations. A key premise of the project is that literary-publicist discourse and “right-wing intellectual” counter publics have formed a unique discourse coalition in contesting multicultural diversity.