Zoom lecture: Lucas Riddle on Humor and the Literary Establishment
January 25, 2024
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
Zoom
Zoom Link for Riddle Lecture
https://uic.zoom.us/j/87191053990?pwd=S2pUcG1MTm1xV2ZzejBlQjd6c0oxQT09
Calendar
Download iCal FileLucas Riddle, PhD
Games of Reference and Relation: Humor and the Literary Establishment in Yoko Tawada’s Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2014) and Sharon Dodua Otoo’s “Herr Gröttrup Takes a Seat” (2016)
Description
This talk explores tensions between two of Germany’s leading authors and their positionality vis-à-vis common traditions of German literature and rigid notions of Germanness. Specifically, I investigate Yoko Tawada’s Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2014) and Sharon Dodua Otoo’s “Herr Gröttrup takes a Seat” (2016) to show how two literary works by minoritized women authors humorously cite and transform traditions, forms, and tropes of German literature and ironically engage with the German literary industry. In doing so, Tawada and Otoo subvert the power of the literary status quo, which represents a larger German national narrative that has historically marginalized them and their work.
Bio:
Lucas Riddle specializes in issues in contemporary Germany, with a focus on postmigrant literature, film, humor, and pop culture. His current book project, Laughing Back: Minoritarian Humor and Empowerment in Contemporary German Literature, examines the use of humor in encounters with exclusionary notions of belonging and Germanness in works of contemporary writing by minoritized authors. His work is featured in Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies and Bloomsbury’s New Directions in German Studies book series. He earned his PhD in 2021 from the University of Illinois Chicago, served as the 2021-2022 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in German at Bowdoin College, and currently teaches at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.
Date posted
Feb 7, 2024
Date updated
Feb 7, 2024