Lecture & Master Class with  Prof. Dr. CLEMENS RUTHNER (Trinity College Dublin)

Thu, 14.01.2015, 18:15 - 19:45, Senatssaal (Schlossplatz 2)

"Thresholds & Transitions. Liminality as heuristic concept in literary and cultural studies"

Dr Clemens Ruthner has been a lecturer & researcher at universities in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Hungary and the USA. Since 2008 he has served as Assistant Professor of German and European Studies at Trinity College. His research focusses on Austrian and comparative literature (C19-20), Central European and postcolonial studies, Otherness (ethnicity, foreigness, gender, monstrosity), literary and cultural theory. At the moment, he is finishing a book on 'Habsburg's Dark Continent: Postcolonial Approaches to Austrian Literature and Culture in the Long 19th Century' (Tübingen: A. Francke, 2016).

In his lecture, Clemens Ruthner will explore the question how the principle of liminality (Victor Turner) is a defining factor of the genre "fantastic literature". Furthermore he will examine if and how fantastic literature and literature in general can overcome liminality through "undead" key figures e.g. the vampire.