Canonicity exerts a particularly profound influence on epic texts. Contemporary theoretical engagement with the epic is thus already characterised by a pronounced interest in the regulatory function of canonical works. Correspondingly, the aesthetics of literary production exhibit a strong tendency to rely on canonical patterns of representation. This tendency is thwarted, however, as soon as the epic text is assigned the task of negotiating current events and contemporary ideological issues instead of 'old' topics from the epic/mythological tradition. Both the collision of contemporary history with classical-cum-epical approaches to textualisation (Subproject 03 Huss) and the clash of humanist and counter-reformation agendas and artistic principles (Subproject 05 Nelting) lead to a multi-dimensional interplay of 'old' and 'new' methods of textualisation and patterns of interpretation within the Early Modern epic.