Sigrid Nieberle
Max Kade Visiting Professor
Fall 2019
Germanic Studies
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About
Professor of modern and contemporary German literature with a focus on gender and diversity at the TU Dortmund, Germany
Main interests:
- Modern German Literature
- Women Writers
- Gender and Diversity Studies
- Intermedia Studies (Literature/Music and Literature/Film)
Fall 2019 Courses at UIC
- German 318/English 305 - Fables: Classics to Contemporary - TR 9:30-10:45
Fables are one of the oldest literary genres in cultural history. They seem to be very simple at a first glance; but they are - quite on the contrary – dense and challenging. The seminar will explore fables from ancient times up to contemporary literature and film. Our main emphasis is on the transcultural reception of fables as well as on the poetological transformation of animals in order to negotiate human behavior in modern societies. Uncertain authorship is only one of the important characteristics, which most of our popular contemporary fables do share. We may think of literary contributions, presumably by Kafka and Brecht, as well as of Disney’s cartoons of the 1940ies, childrens’ stories as “Paddington” and some interesting examples for contemporary tv commercials. No knowledge of German required. Readings and discussions in English. - German 531 - Literature beyond the book - T 3:30-6
Reading, knowing and talking about literature is socially and technically organized. Given, that the variety of contemporary ways to ‘read’ literary texts depends on specific media developments, the possibilities of the literary reception are changing continuously. Getting to know a classic novel, can be a quiet affair in a wing chair or a very common experience by watching screen adaptations in a cinema. Nowadays, we can also learn about the literary canon and its single texts by playing computer games, swiping on tablets or still studying specific anthologies. Literary texts are communicated by discoursive and non-discoursive behavior in diverse societies, which are conditionally created by media aesthetics. In the course we will mainly discuss research on this issue. The course language is German.
Selected Publications
Prof. Nieberle’s publications include the monograph Gender Studies und Literatur. Eine Einführung (2013) (Introduction to Gender Studies and Literature), Literarische Filmbiographien. Autorschaft und Literaturgeschichte im Kino (2008) (Literary Biopics. Authorship and Literary History in the Movies) and the forthcoming edited volume Litpics. Filmische Dispositive literarischer Kommunikation (Litpics. Filmic Dispositives of Literary Communication). She is also the co-editor of the journal Gender. Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft. (Gender. Journal for Gender, Culture and Society).
For a full list of publications, please see her website.
Education
Dr. phil. (PhD), Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
Dr. phil. habil., University of Greifswald, Germany