Short Bio’s

Privatdozentin Dr. CHARLOTTE KLONK

http://www.kunstgeschichte.hu-berlin.de/mitarbeiterinnen/privatdozentinnen/pd-dr-charlotte-klonk

E-mail: charlotte.klonk@culture.hu-berlin.de

teaches art history at the Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her publications include Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late 18^th and Early 19^th Centuries (1996), and with Michael Hatt she is co-author of Art History: A Critical Introduction to Its Methods (2006). Her latest book is Spaces of Experience: Art Gallery Interiors from 1800 to 2000 (2009). This fascinating study of art-gallery interiors investigates the shifting ideals and practices within European and North American art galleries from the 18^th to the late 20^th century. Klonk’s study shows in detail the various presentations of exhibitions and how they have been created and installed – the colours of the background walls, the lighting, the functions of furniture, the tallness of and the density between the exhibited art objects – and her study traces the various scientific, political and commercial influences that have paradigmatically motivated and been part of the formation and the realization of the exhibitions. Charlotte Klonk demonstrates that the theories of scholars like Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt have given rise to apperception theories that have played a decisive role in conditioning and motivating new modes of exhibiting art works. She also shows how crucial “the period eye” (Michael Baxandall’s term) has been for the shifting modes of seeing in art galleries. A particular “period eye” has been the condition of possibility for the constantly revised “Neue Sehen” – which again has been influenced by renewed fashions in the shaping of interiors, as well as by exhibitions in shopping malls and commercial show cases. Klonk argues that the interiors of art galleries and museums should be understood and “read” as part of a far broader history constituted by the cultural construction of human experience in general. Charlotte Klonk’s perspective refreshes and updates the basic problems of the management and the reconstitution of memory. – Klonk’s current research projects include “Mobile Spaces of Experience in the Twentieth Century” as well as “Portraits without Qualities in Art and Science”.

Professor Dr., Dr. h. c. ERIKA FISCHER-LICHTE

http://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/we07/mitarbeiter/fischerlichte/index.html

E-mail: theater@zedat.fu-berlin.de

is Professor of Theatre Studies at the Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin. She has also held positions in Slavic studies and in comparative literature. She is a member of the Academia Europaea, the Academy of Sciences at Göttingen, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences; she also holds the chair at the Institute of Advanced Studies on ”Interweaving Cultures in Performance”, and she leads the Collaborative Resarch Centre on ”Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits”. Fischer-Lichte has written books on the history of drama and theatre, on the semiotic and hermeneutic problems in theatre studies, on the role of the on-looker and the gaze in the theatre, as well as on aesthetic experience (which also includes the experience of memory, the shock, and the sublime). Central in Fischer-Lichte’s research has been the social, cultural and territorial roles of the theatre, and also the relationship between histrionic practices, apperception and the body. Her research is about tradition as well as modernity in the performing arts, but also about performative practices in culture, religion and in the life of cultural communities. For a series of years, Fischer-Lichte has been the director of the large, inter-disciplinary project ”Kulturen des Performativen”. In this project she has developed a new mode of thinking about action and space – historically, aesthetically and culturally – which establishes a foundation that in new ways combine textual theory with performance-theory, as for example in her ground-breaking book Ästhetik des Performativen (2004; English transl. as The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2008)). Among Fischer-Lichte’s many other publications we find books like Global Ibsen. Performing Multiple Modernities (2010); Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual. Exploring Forms of Political Theatre (2005); History of European Drama and Theatre (2002; German 1990); The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective (1997); The Semiotics of Theatre (1992; German 1983); and The Dramatic Touch of Difference: Theatre, Own and Foreign (1990).

Professor Dr. ASTRID ERLL

http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/fb/fb10/ieas/abteilungen/anglistik/lehrende/erll/index.html

E-mail: erll@em.uni-frankfurt.de

is Professor of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main. Previously, she held a professorship of English Literature, Media, and Culture at Bergische Universität Wuppertal (2007-2010) and the position of researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre 'Memory Cultures' at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen (2003-2007). Her research has been on British literary and cultural history, studies of cultural memory, postcolonial studies, media theory, and narratology. Presently, she is, together with Ansgar Nünning, chief editor of the book series “Media and Cultural Memory/Medien und kulturelle Erinnerung” (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, from 2004 to the present day). Already Astrid Erll’s PhD-dissertation is about the problematics of memory; it deals with German and English novels which produced memories of World War I in the 1920s (Gedächtnisromane: Literatur über den Ersten Weltkrieg als Medium englischer und deutscher Erinnerungskulturen in den 1920er Jahren, 2003). Erll’s postdoc-dissertation is about the representation of ‘1857/58’ under imperial power and in postcolonial media cultures (Repräsentationen des indischen Aufstands, 2006; published 2007 as Prämediation – Remediation. Der indische Aufstand in imperialen und post-kolonialen Medienkulturen (1857 bis zur Gegenwart). Among Astrid Erll’s further publications are Interkulturelle Kompetenzen. Erfolgreich kommunizieren zwischen den Kulturen (2007); an introduction to memory studies: Kollektives Gedächtnis und Erinnerungskulturen. Eine Einführung (2005; transl. as Memory in Culture, Palgrave 2011); "Cultural-Studies Approaches to Narrative" in The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Narrative Theory (2005); "Where Literature and Memory Meet” in Herbert Grabes (ed.): Literature, Literary History, and Cultural Memory. REAL - Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature (2005, with Ansgar Nünning); and Literature and the Production of Cultural Memory. EJES (European Journal of English Studies 2006, with Ann Rigney). – Further books that Astrid Erll has published together with others (either in the de Gruyter series or otherwise) are Mediation, Remediation, and the Dynamics of Cultural Memory (2009); Film und kulturelle Erinnerung: Plurimediale Konstellationen (2008); Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (2008); Ethics in Culture. The Dissemination of Values in Literature and Other Media (2008); Gedächtniskonzepte der Literaturwissenschaft. Theoretische Grundlegung und Anwendungsperspektiven (2005); Medien des kollektiven Gedächtnisses. Konstruktivtät – Historizität – Kulturspezifität (2004); and Literatur – Erinnerung – Identität. Theoriekonzeptionen und Fallstudien (2003).

Professor Dr., Dr. h. c. SIGRID WEIGEL

http://www.zfl.gwz-berlin.de/mitarbeiter/mitarbeiter/_/1/

E-mail: direktion@zfl-berlin.org, litera@zfl.gwz-berlin.de

is Director of the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin, and Chair of the Board of the Geisteswissenschaftlichen Zentren Berlin; she also holds the position of Professor at the Institut für Literaturwissenschaft der Technischen Universität Berlin. She is also a member of the Acadaemia Europaea and an honorary member of the Modern Language Association. – Several of Sigrid Weigel’s projects have focused in particular on the concept of generation (narratively, temporally, and in the sense of the biological construction of genealogy), on genealogy and filiation, and on sacred figures in the dialectics of secularization. Presently, she is studying the relation between cultural studies and the natural sciences within such parameters. Her projects also include the study of sacred figures in the dialectics of secularization; furthermore, heritage, legacy and inheritance as history-changing concepts in the transmission of knowledge between culture and nature. She studies gene-ration as patterns of understanding in cultural communities of heritage; another project is about the topography of plural cultures in Europe (against the background of Europe’s displacement towards the East); and a currently commencing project is on communal rituals of mourning and figures of affect. – Weigel is renowned for her thinking and analyses of body- and image-spaces. In her scholarly work she has been inspired by and has further appropriated the thinking of Walter Benjamin, the Frankfurt School, Julia Kristeva as well as Michel Foucault. A number of Weigel’s publications are on writing and cultural history (Literatur als Voraussetzung der Kulturgeschichte. Schauplätze von Shakespeare bis Benjamin, München 2004), on Ingeborg Bachmann (Ingeborg Bachmann. Hinterlassenschaften unter Wahrung des Briefgeheimnisses (Wien 1999)), on Walter Benjamin (Entstellte Ähnlichkeit. Walter Benjamins theoretische Schreibweise, Frankfurt/M. 1997; and Body- and Image Space. Re-Reading Walter Benjamin, ed., London 1996). Other books by Weigel are on image figurations within literature and cultural memory (Bilder des kulturellen Gedächtnisses. Beiträge zur Gegenwartsliteratur, Dülmen-Hiddingsel 1994) and on the spaces of gender: gender topographies (Topographien der Geschlechter. Kulturgeschichtliche Studien zur Literatur, Reinbek 1990). Sigrid Weigel possesses a broad textual and cultural competence and has included into her research empirical materials from both the high literary canons, the weekly press, historical pamphlets, prison literature, new-medial genres, and – not least – materials that actively re-process, manage, and constitute memory. – Among Weigel’s many other books are Grammatologie der Bilder (2009); Walter Benjamin. Die Kreatur, das Heilige, die Bilder (2008); Genea-Logik. Generation, Tradition und Evolution zwischen Kultur- und Naturwissenschaften (2006); Die Stimme der Medusa. Schreibweisen in der Gegenwartsliteratur von Frauen (1987); “Und selbst im Kerker frei…!” Zur Theorie und Gattungsgeschichte der Gefängnisliteratur 1750-1933 (1982); and Flugschriftenliteratur 1848 in Berlin. Geschichte und Öffentlichkeit einer volkstümlichen Gattung (1977). – Sigrid Weigel has also edited a number of volumes, as e.g. Heine und Freud. Die Enden der Literatur und die Anfänge der Kulturwissenschaft (2010); Märtyrer-Portraits. Von Opfertod, Blutzeugen und heiligen Kriegern (2007); Genealogie und Genetik. Schnittstellen zwischen Biologie und Kulturgeschichte (2002); Flaschenpost und Postkarte. Korrespondenzen zwischen Kritischer Theorie und Poststrukturalismus (1995); and Leib- und Bildraum. Lektüren nach Benjamin (1992).

Professor Dr. ANSGAR NÜNNING

http://www.uni-giessen.de/erinnerungskulturen/home/profil-anuenning.html

E-mail: ansgar.nuenning@anglistik.uni-giessen.de, gcsc@uni-giessen.de

is Founding and Managing Director of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), and Director of Graduate Studies, at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.

Professor Nünning’s main research foci and areas presently are *Memory researches in cultural studies; *The theories of literary and cultural studies, narratology, genre theory, and the historical novel; and *The history of cultural mentalities, New Historicism, and comparative imagology. – A current part project of his is *The shaping, the actualization and the revisions of the imperial memory culture of Great Britain: The media of literary memory in the 19th and 20th centuries.

– Ansgar Nünning (b. 1959) first studied English and History at the Universität zu Köln. Since 1997 he has been Professor für Englische und Amerikanische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen; Director of the "Gießener Graduiertenzentrums Kulturwissenschaften (GGK)"; Leader of the Phd- and Postdoc-programme "Klassizismus und Romantik im europäischen Kontext"; Project Coordinator of the international postdoc-programme "Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft"; as well as Part Project Leader of the Collaborative Research Centre (Sonderforschungsbereich) “Erinnerungskulturen” / “Memory Cultures”, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen – where he together with Astrid Erll is chief editor of the book series “Media and Cultural Memory / Medien und kulturelle Erinnerung” (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, from 2004 to the present day).

– Among his numerous publications in Anglo-American literary and cultural studies and literary theory are Literaturwissenschaftliche Theorien, Modelle und Methoden (1995, 1998); Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie (1998, 2001, 2004); Konzepte der Kulturwissenschaften - Theoretische Grundlagen - Ansätze - Perspektiven (2003).

– Other publications include:

-- “ ’Memory’s Truth’ und ‘Memory’s Fragile Power’: Rahmen und Grenzen der individuellen und kulturellen Erinnerung.” Autobiographisches Schreiben in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur, Bd. 2: Grenzen der Erinnerung, eds. Edgar Platen, Beactrice Sandberg. München: Iudicum 2007;

-- “Metaautobiographien: Gattungsgedächtnis, Gattungskritik und Funktionen selbstreflexiver fiktionaler Autofiktionen.” Autobiographisches Schreiben in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur, Bd. 2: Grenzen der Erinnerung, eds. Edgar Platen, Beactrice Sandberg. München: Iudicum 2007;

-- “Wie aus einem historischen Geschehen ein Medienereignis wird: Kategorien für ein erzähltheoretisches Beschreibungsmodell.” Der Krimkrieg als erster europäischer Medienkrieg, eds. Georg Maag & Martin Windisch. Münster: LIT 2007;

-- “Erinnerung – Erzählen – Identität: Perspektiven einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Erzählforschung.” Theorien der Literatur, Bd. 3, eds. Hans Vilmar Geppert & Hubert Zapf. Tübingen, Basel: Francke 2007, 33-59;

-- “Memorial Cultures and Literary Studies: Concepts and Functions of Memory as a Challenge to Research on Witness.” Witness: Memory, Representation, and the Media in Question, eds. Ulrik Ekman, Frederik Tygstrup. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press 2007;

-- “Die Thronjubiläen Königin Viktorias als Paradigma imperialistischer Erinnerungskultur.” Atlantic Understandings. Essays on European and American History in Honor of Herman Wellenreuther, eds. Claudia Schnurmann, Hartmut Lehmann. Münster: LIT Verlag 2006, 317-345 (together with Vera Nünning);

-- “Concepts and Methods for the Study of Literature and/as Cultural Memory.” Literature and Memory: Theoretical Paradigms, Genres, Functions, eds. Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning & Roy Sommer. Tübingen: Narr 2006, 11-28 (together with Astrid Erll);

-- “Gauging the Relation between Literature and Memory: Theoretical Paradigms, Genres, Functions.” Literature and Memory: Theoretical Paradigms, Genres, Functions, eds. Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning & Roy Sommer. Tübingen: Narr 2006, 1-7 (together with Marion Gymnich & Roy Sommer);

-- “Literaturwissenschaftliche Konzepte von Gedächtnis: Ein einführender Überblick.” Gedächtniskonzepte der Literaturwissenschaft. Theoretische Grundlegung und Anwendungsperspektiven, eds. Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nünning. Media & Cultural Memory, Bd. 2. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2005, 1-9 (together with Astrid Erll);

-- Literature and Memory: Representations, Functions, Intersections, eds. Ansgar Nünning, Marion Gymnich, Roy Sommer. Trier: WVT 2006;

-- Gedächtniskonzepte der Literaturwissenschaft: Theoretische Grundlegung und Anwendungsperspektiven, eds. Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nünning (with the co-operation of Hanne Birk, Birgit Neumann). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2005;

-- Medien des kollektiven Gedächtnisses: Konstruktivität - Historizität - Kulturspezifität, eds. Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nünning (with the co-operation of Hanne Birk, Birgit Neumann, Patrick Schmidt). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2004;

-- “Von der Echokammer der Texte zum Medium der Erinnerungskultur: Fünf Gedächtniskonzepte der Literaturwissenschaft.” In: Handlung, Kultur, Interpretation. Zeitschrift für Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften (2003), eds. Nicolas Pethes, Jens Ruchatz, 141-163 (together with Astrid Erll);

-- Literatur - Erinnerung - Identität: Theoriekonzeptionen und Fallstudien, eds. Astrid Erll, Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning. ELCH 11. Trier: WVT 2003;

-- Fictions of Memory, ed. Ansgar Nünning. Journal for the Study of British Cultures 10.1 (2003);

-- Von historischer Fiktion zu historiographischer Metafiktion. 2 Bde. Trier: WVT 1995.