Forschungsschwerpunkte

Zeitgenössisches britisches Drama und Theater
British Cultural Studies
Viktorianismus
Gender Studies
Black British Culture
Visual Culture

 

Aktuelle Forschungsprojekte

New Labour - New Theatre?
Redrawing Dramatic Paradigms in Britain from the 1990s onwards

Es wird untersucht, wie etablierte Kategorien der Drama-Sekundärliteratur ausgeweitet werden müssen, um die Besonderheiten des britischen Theaters seit 1990 zu erfassen. Die Entwicklungen werden in Zusammenhang gebracht mit den Veränderungen im britischen politischen System unter Tony Blair und Gordon Brown, die z.T. unter David Cameron anhalten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei der durch New Labour eingeleitete Umschwung in der politischen Rhetorik sowie die Formen, die diese Entwicklung im 21. Jahrhundert annimmt. Wichtige Themenbereiche sind das politische Drama, das In-Yer-Face Theatre, das postdramatische Theater sowie der Gebrauch narrativer Elemente in den Stücken.

Interactions between Gender and Genre Constructions

Das Projekt untersucht einerseits mögliche Wechselwirkungen zwischen bestimmten Gattungskonzepten in der englischen Literatur und den in den entsprechenden Werken vorkommenden Genderdarstellungen sowie andererseits Genreentscheidungen, die in einer konkreten historischen Situation ausgeprägte Genderkonnotationen haben. Besondere Schwerpunkte sind das britische Drama des 19. Jahrhunderts und die Variationen des Bildungsromangenres in Großbritannien im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert.  Das Projekt wird in Kooperation mit dem Bereich Komparatistik der Universität Paderborn und dem Musikwissenschaftlichen Seminar Detmold/Paderborn durchgeführt.

Spatial Constructions of British Identities

Die Nutzung und Darstellung ausgewählter Räume und Landschaften in Großbritannien wird in Beziehung gesetzt zu den Identitätskonstruktionen bestimmter Gruppen in der britischen Gesellschaft bzw. zu allgemeinen Konzepten britischer nationaler Identität. Der zeitliche Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, und die analysierten Repräsentationen decken eine große Bandbreite von Medien ab. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Fotografie. Im Rahmen des Projekts bestehen Kooperationen mit den Universitäten Portsmouth und Derby (Großbritannien).

In den folgenden Forschungsclustern bin ich aktiv:

Audio and Visual Studies

In the vibrant, ever-expanding field of visual culture and sound studies, our department focuses on four clearly defined areas. A research project funded by the BMBF and co-directed by Alexander Dunst, "Digital and Cognitive Approaches to Graphic Literature" explores graphic novels and comics from a Digital Humanities perspective. Jarmila Mildorf leads a project called "Audionarratology," investigating the interface of narrative and sound. Several projects located at the department investigate the history of photography, in its American context (Christoph Ribbat) and in the UK (Merle Tönnies). Finally, Hollywood cinema, transnational film, and visual culture constitute central research and teaching areas in the department (Alexander Dunst, Christina Flotmann, Alexandra Hartmann, Christoph Singer, Sara StraußMiriam Strube).

Drama and Performance Studies

Research projects in the department cover a range of dramatic and theatrical styles in Britain, from the early modern period right up to the 2010s. Different research projects in the department cover a range of dramatic and theatrical styles in Britain, from the early modern period right up to the 2010s. For the dramatic productions of Shakespearean times there is a special focus on the representation of movement and mobility on stage (Ehland). Moving forward in time to the Victorian Age, the theatrical style of melodrama is scrutinised with regard to its generic and cultural implications (Tönnies). With regard to contemporary British theatre, the diverse forms that political drama has taken from the mid-20th century onwards are studied in the context of actual political developments, paying particular attention to the use of dramatic techniques and the roles accorded to the audience (Tönnies).

Gender Studies

Gender studies research positions itself in diverse fields. Department members pursue projects in popular culture and philosophy (Strube), 19th to 21st century novels and drama (Flotmann/Tönnies), Chicano/a literature and culture (Reiffenrath), photography and visual culture (Ribbat) as well as interrelations between gender and genre (Ehland/Tönnies). We are pleased to cooperate with the University of Paderborn's Center for Gender Studies. For future collaborative work and/or Ph.D. dissertations, we welcome gender-oriented research undertakings in literary and cultural studies, cultural history, masculinity studies, and queer theory.

Postcolonial Studies / African American Studies

Postcolonial and African American studies inform several English and American Studies research projects in our department. Researchers investigate specific aspects of contemporary and late 20th century Black British novels and drama (Tönnies), Black Studies as intellectual history (Strube), modes of resistance and agency in African American culture (Hartmann) and conjunctions between Civil Rights activism, life writing, and the history of the everyday (Ribbat).  We're aiming to expand our international network in these fields. And we would be happy to discuss new projects by junior scholars.

Space

The influence of the topographical turn is reflected in a number of research initiatives in the department. Our projects address a variety of issues that cover regional, national and postcolonial identities in Britain and the English-speaking world. Here, the focus rests on the representation of landscapes and cityscapes which are endowed with cultural meanings that construct, maintain and circulate myths and histories of national and regional cultures. Individual research activities explore institutional phenomena such as the prison (Wächter), the utopian/dystopian (de)construction of liminal spaces like the shore (Singer), nostalgic reappropriation in political and cultural spaces (Wirth), the 17th-century ritual of the Lord Mayor Show in London (Ehland), the (de)construction and mutual dependency of home and colonial spaces in 19th-century fiction or the spatial dimension in the work of contemporary British photographers (Tönnies).
Members of the department are engaged in a number of initiatives in the field of the study of cultural spaces: the international book series Spatial Practices (Brill Publishing) is edited by members of the department who also maintain close contact with research groups such as the Critical Topography Group in Canada and the US.