News Archive
Off the Radar: Periodical Printmedia Outside Mainstream Culture, 1800 - Today (30/31 January 2021).
Zum Programm
U4 Workshop "Concepts and Tools in Cultural Transfer Research. Case: Travel Writing" (Großer Seminarraum SUB, 16-17 May 2019)
Jane Austen Bicentenary (2017)
Click here for flyer
Click here to visit Jane Austen Bicentenary website
Julia Kroll: Literature and Books in Museums
Are you interested in the museological significance and care of books and paper in museums and historic houses? Then this workshop is the right one for you. We will be dealing with the material and construction of book collections and the care they need, especially when damaged or in danger of deterioration. (July 3, 2015)
| Tagungsankündigung: "Translation and Transformation in the Age of Revolution (1750-1850)" | |
| Vom 23. bis zum 25. Juni findet die Tagung "Translation and Transformation in the Age of Revolution (1750-1850)" in der Historischen Sternwarte statt. Alle Informationen gibt es hier (PDF). | |
Edinburgh Summer School 2016
The Department of English Literature and Culture announces its Eighth Summer School held at the University of Edinburgh August 2016
You can take two fully credited courses in English Literature and Culture, American Studies, and/or Landeskunde. All courses are taught by members of our staff.
You can also participate in workshops in the fields of literary tourism and library studies. Some financial support will be provided to all participants.
There are 40 places available, so make sure you come to the first information meeting on Wednesday, 2 December 2015, 18h in ZHG 007
International Conference: Transgressions, Transformations: Literature and Beyond
The English Department is proud to host the International CISLE 2015 Conference on Transgressions/Transformations: Literature and Beyond from 27 - 31 July, 2015.
Conference Venue: Historical Observatory
(Geismar Landstr. 11)
Click here to download the flyer containing the programme.
Lecture by Dr Marc Lafrance: The Dark Side of Camp - Making Sense of Violence against Men in Christina Aguilera's "Your Body" - cancelled due to train strike
In cooperation with the Göttingen Centre for Gender Studies, the English Department would like announce a guest lecture by Dr Marc Lafrance on "The Dark Side of Camp - Making Sense of Violence against Men in Christina Aguilera's 'Your Body'". The lecture will take place on 7 May, 6pm in ZHG 003.Marc Lafrance is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Concordia University, Montreal.
His research focuses on representations of gender, sexuality, race and class in the North American Mass Media, especially popular music.
New publication, edited by Frauke Reitemeier and Kirsten Sandrock
Scotland's literary and cultural heritage is infused with narratives of crime. Both real and imagined criminals have shaped the image of Scotland's supposed dual soul. The tension between good and evil, salvation and redemption as well as beauty and repulsiveness lies at the heart of the Scottish Tartan Noir tradition, which has been thriving ever since Robert Louis Stevenson published his novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Critics have frequently used Gregory Smith's term "Caledonian antisyzygy" in order to express what has been perceived as the duality of the Scottish character, yet up to this day neither the production nor the reception of Scotland's alleged split soul has been properly analyzed or understood.This volume seeks to explore the wide field of Scottish crime narratives from a variety of perspectives and with a focus on a variety of themes. Crimes in Scottish history and their treatment in literature and film are discussed in the collected papers, as are questions of spatiality and gender and genre in Scottish crime writing. The book also features a special section on Ian Rankin's Rebus novels and two "Crimelight" articles that yield insight into both the historical and the current literary scene of Scottish crime writers. For further information, please click here
International Conference: Literature and Media Theory: Mediality - Materiality - Cultural Techniques
The so-called medial turn and the ever-growing importance of film, television and the internet in recent decades have led not only to a radical change in the humanities but also to an alteration of the way we read and investigate literature. The field of literary studies has been increasingly broadened in the light of this development. After the crisis of theory and the erosion of the deconstructionist paradigm at the turn of the millennium, media theory has become one of the most productive approaches to literature. Yet, while the relation between literature and other media has already been investigated in a number of critical studies, this conference aims at discussing literature as a medium in its own right. The theoretical foundations allowing such a conception of literature go back to the 1960s; however, what is still lacking in literary studies is both a detailed scrutiny of the benefits and (dis)advantages of these and examinations of the results of said advanced theories by re-applying them in readings of concrete literary texts. A concept linking both the term literature and the term medium that promises to solve these theoretical problems is that of cultural technique.
The international conference Literature and Media Theory: Mediality - Materiality - Cultural Technique, taking place at Göttingen University from 19th to 21st March, will address questions of how to interpret literature as a medium in the light of cultural techniques: How can the mediality of literature be explored without reducing it to textuality? What are the benefits in using theoretical concepts such as cultural technique and mediality when interpreting a given literary text? How is the field of literary studies supposed to respond to the described theoretical circumstances? International experts as well as early-stage scholars from the fields of literary studies, literary theory and media studies will discuss and expound the problems of different approaches to those questions. We believe that the dialogue between literary and cultural studies, on the one hand, and media studies, on the other, promises to open up new perspectives and possibilities, especially when it comes to discussing established theories by McLuhan, Kittler and Luhmann, for instance, in the light of the currently much discussed theory of cultural technique.
New publication, co-edited by Brigitte Johanna Glaser
This collection of critical essays investigates various forms of loss portrayed in late 20th- and early 21st-century Anglophone fiction. Loss of individuals, places, identity, values, treasured objects and moments frequently causes a reconsideration of life among literary characters and narrators.
Making use of theoretical approaches from the areas of psychology, postcolonial studies, narratology or gender studies, the essays analyse contemporary fiction with regard to its multi-layered representational capacities of rendering loss. They examine various forms of fictionalisation, among them also memoirs, semi-historical fiction and graphic narratives. Concepts and keywords which are used in exploring the subject matter are the following: assessing the connection of loss and mourning; dealing with loss through the process of aestheticisation; recovering lost objects through memory; and representing nostalgically the absent. For further information, please click here
Ringvorlesung: William Shakespeare - 450 Jahre Produktive Rezeption
Im Wintersemester 2014/15 findet jeden Donnerstag ab 18:15 eine Ringvorlesung zum Thema Shakespeare statt. Der Veranstaltungsort ist die Paulinerkirche, Papendiek 14. Das Plakat mit den einzelnen Vorlesungsthemen kann mit einem Klick auf das Bild heruntergeladen werden.
Auszeichnung Dr. Claudia Georgi
Claudia Georgi erhält am 18.6. in Hamburg für ihre Dissertation "Liveness on Stage" einen Preis der German Society for Contemporary Drama in English. Die Abteilung gratuliert ihr herzlich zu diesem Erfolg!
The Long Shakespeare Film Night on 25 June 2014
The Long Shakespeare Film Night on 25 June 2014
The English Department is going to celebrate Shakespeare's 450 birthday with a Long Film Night at the SEP. By casting their votes, students of the department decide which movies will be shown. To participate simply sign up for the course "Long Shakespear Night" on StudIP, vote at the opinion poll until June 8 and join us in the SEP on 25 June at 7.30pm.Stellenausschreibung wiss. MitarbeiterInnen zur Promotion
Am Graduiertenkolleg 1787 "Literatur und Literaturvermittlung im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung" der Georg- August-Universität sind zum 01.10.2014 7 Stellen einer/eines wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiterin/wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiters zur Promotion mit 65% der regelmäßigen wöchentlichen Arbeitszeit (zztkom. 25,87 Stunden/Woche befristet für die Dauer von 2 Jahren zu besetzen. Alle Informationen dazu sind im folgenden Dokument zu finden: Stellenausschreibung
Lecture by Professor Ian Campbell: Carlyle and the Machine Nexus
In Prof. Schaff's lecture series on nineteenth-century British literature and culture, professor Ian Campbell of Edinburgh University will give a guest lecture on "Carlyle and the Machine Nexus" - and even if you are not interested in Carlyle or his cultural criticism or machines in general, feel free to come. Professor Campbell is a most distinguished and gifted speaker, and you will definitely enjoy his talk.Professor Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Scottish and Victorian literature. He specialises in nineteenth and twentieth century Scottish and English fiction and poetry, and is senior editor of the Carlyle Letters project.
New publication, co-edited by Barbara Schaff
Taking up the historical evolution of Darwin and his theories and the cultural responses they have inspired, Reflecting on Darwin poses the following questions: 'How are the apparatuses in the mid-nineteenth century and at the turn of the twenty-first century interconnected with bio-scientific paradigms in art, literature, culture and science?' 'How are naturalism, determinism and Darwinism - the eugenics of the nineteenth century and the genetic coding of the twentieth century - positioned, embodied and staged in various media configurations and media genres?' and 'How have particular media apparatuses formed, displaced or stabilized the various concepts of humankind in the framework of evolutionary theory?' Ranging from the early circulation of Darwin's ideas to the present, this interdisciplinary collection pays particular attention to Darwin's postmillennial reception. Beginning with an overview of the historical development of contemporary ecological and ethical fears, Reflecting on Darwin then turns to Darwin's influence on contemporary media, neo-Victorian literature and culture, science fiction literature and film, and contemporary theory. In examining the plurality of ways in which Darwin has been rewritten and reappropriated, this unique volume both mirrors and inspects the complexity of recent debates in Victorian and neo-Victorian studies. For further information, please click here.Module M.EP.12a/c: Internships in Britain and Germany
Are you studying English in the Master's programme? Would you fancy becoming actively involved with the literature industry? Then this is your chance! Students have the opportunity to do internships as part of the core curriculum (module M.EP.12a/c). The English Department has organised traineeships at several literary museums in Britain and Germany, including the Brontë Parsonage, Abbotsford, the Keats House, Shakespeare's Birthplace, and the Literarisches Zentrum Göttingen. For further information, please click here or contact Professor Schaff.Volontariat im Literarischen Zentrum Göttingen
Zum kommenden Sommersemester bietet das Literarische Zentrum Göttingen zwei Studierenden der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Göttingen die Möglichkeit eines einjährigen, vergüteten Volontariats. Der Einsendeschluss ist der 25.01.2014. Weitere Informationen hier.An dieser Stelle sei auch noch mal auf das Modul M.EP.12 verwiesen, in dem Studierende die Möglichkeit haben, durch ein Praktikum in England oder Deutschland Einblicke in den Literaturbetrieb zu bekommen. Weitere Informationen hier und via Mail an Professor Schaff.
New publication, co-edited by Barbara Schaff
Wie kann man Literatur ausstellen? Welchen wissenschaftlichen, pädagogischen oder ästhetischen Anspruch erhebt eine Literaturausstellung? Dieser Band zeigt: In Zeiten, in denen sich literaturwissenschaftliche Konzepte die Verräumlichung literarischer Strukturen auf die Fahnen schreiben, ist die »Aura« ein wichtiger Terminus technicus auf dem Gebiet der Literaturvermittlung. Welche Orte, Gegenstände oder Persönlichkeiten kommen als Aura-Träger in Frage? Welche Bedeutungszuschreibungen erfährt die Authentizität? Zu welchem Zweck und mit welchen Folgen wird »auratisiert«? Diesen Fragen widmen sich die Beiträger aus der Literaturwissenschaft und der Ausstellungspraxis, die Formen der Literaturvermittlung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Autor, Text und Rezipienten reflektieren. Für weitere Informationen hier klicken.Komparatistik-Ringvorlesung
Aktuelle Perspektiven komparatistischer Forschung
(Um das Bild in hoher Auflösung zu sehen, bitte hier klicken)
Zum Programm der Ringvorlesung
New publication, co-edited by Ralf Haekel
Discovering the Human: Life Science and the Arts in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (VR unipress: 2013) investigates the emergence of the modern human sciences and their impact on literature, art and other media in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Up until the 1830s, science and culture were part of a joint endeavour to discover and explore the secret of life. The question 'What is life?' unites science and the arts during the Ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism, and at the end of the Romantic period, a shift of focus from the human as an organic whole to the specialized disciplines signals the dawning of modernity. For further information, please click here.CFP: Shifting Grounds: Cultural Tectonics along the Pacific Rim
Starting from the dynamically rich metaphor of ‘shifting grounds,’ the aim of the interdisciplinary conference is, on the one hand, to investigate the concept of the Pacific Rim theoretically in the context of spatial reconfigurations and with reference to ideas of translation, amalgamation or globalization, and, on the other hand, to historicize and concretize the Pacific Rim via empirical case studies. The conference is jointly organized by the universities Göttingen and Mainz. To download the cfp, please click here.2 neue Erasmusplätze für das WS 2013/14 in Cork, Irland!
Kurzfristig haben wir einen neuen Erasmus-Austausch ins Leben rufen können: Schon im kommenden Wintersemester 2013/14 können zwei Studierende aus unserem Seminar für 6-12 Monate am University College Cork in Irland studieren - und zwar im Bereich 'Foreign Languages', mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Vermittlungsmethoden. Die mit Dr. Manfred Schewe vorgesehene Kooperation sieht insbesondere vor, Studierenden Einblicke in Drama- und Theater-Methoden beim Lehren und Lernen fremder Sprachen zu gewähren. Aber auch andere thematische Kurse im Bereich 'Foreign Languages', auch innerhalb der Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft, können belegt werden. Dr. Manfred Schewe ist zwar am German Department tätig, die bei ihm belegten Kurse können aber bei uns im Master of Education auch für das Fach Englisch angerechnet werden, da es eben um diesen bestimmten methodischen Schwerpunkt ('Applied Drama and Theatre' bzw. 'Drama and Theatre Pedagogy') geht.Interessierte wenden sich bitte an Dr. Gordon Ross, der im SEP für die Koordination der Erasmus-Programme zuständig ist.
Bewerbungsschluss ist Freitag, der 3. Mai.
New publication, co-edited by Kirsten Sandrock
Locating Italy: East and West in British-Italian Transactions (Rodopi: 2013) explores for the first time British-Italian exchanges in terms of East-West, rather than North-South. In so doing, it reveals that Italy has long been a meeting point of East and West as much as one of North and South. Comprising essays from the fields of history, politics, the philosophy of language, linguistics, literature, and the arts, the collection illustrates that the dynamics of British–Italian transactions have long been shaped by a fascinating process of location and relocation. For further information, please click here.Habilitation Ralf Haekel
It is our great pleasure to announce that on February 6, Ralf Haekel successfully completed his Habilitation. The Department of British Literature and Culture would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him once again!Banned Books Exhibition
This exhibition is organized by students of British Literature and Culture. It will be on display from 14 January to 04 February in the library of the English Department. Come by and join us on the opening night and reception on Monday, 14 January, 6-8 pm!To download the poster, please click here.
The Department would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr Bill Bell from Edinburgh as our DAAD Visiting Professor for the next two semesters. Dr Bell is director of the distinguished Centre for the History of the Book at The University of Edinburgh where he teaches English Literature in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. A specialist in Nineteenth Century literature and culture, he has written extensively on the sociology of the text, the history of the book, and theories of cultural production. He is general editor of The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland and of the quarterly journal The Library, co-published by The Bibliographical Society and Oxford University Press. In the Winter Semester he will be teaching advanced courses on The English Classic, The Literature Industry, and Utopia and Enlightenment.