Julia Albers
Julia Albers

Knut Hamsun and the Hamsun jubilee 2009 in (inter)national discourse (working title)

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This dissertation project deals with the (inter)national media debate surrounding the anniversary celebrations in honor of the 150th birthday of the Norwegian Nobel Prize winner for literature Knut Hamsun, who sympathized with the German National Socialists during World War II and again - even 60 years after his death - became the focus of the (inter)national press because of his political stance. That the debate about Knut Hamsun has not lost its explosiveness until today is among other things due to the fact that it is closely linked to current identity discourses, discussions about the post-war and contemporary history of Norway as well as about strategies of a modern, contemporary (European) culture of remembrance. Thus, in the age of a changing Europe, the anniversary celebrations in honor of the controversial author Knut Hamsun stand in the field of tension between (inter)national coming to terms with the past and national search for identity. These discourse ramifications and dynamics need to be examined, and thus this dissertation project intervenes in these debates relevant to the transnational public sphere from a Scandinavian perspective.

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Susanne Kramarz-Bein, Prof. Dr. Cornelia Blasberg, and Prof. Dr. Silke van Dyk.
 

Contact

  • Research Interests

    • Scandinavian literature
    • Relationship between writers, politics and society
    • Discourse theory and analysis
    • Argumentation and topos analysis
  • Education

    Since 10/2012 PhD student at the Graduate School Practices of Literature Münster
    2005 - 2010 Scandinavian Studies, German and Romance Studies at the University of Münster and at the Universitet Stockholm
  • Projects and Professional Experience

    Projects

    11/2014 Co-organizer of the conference „Neuverhandlungen des Holocaust. Neue Generationen, neue Medien, altes Thema?“, Bennohaus Münster
    since 2013 Co-founder of the citizens' initiative and co-organizer of the reading of the same name
    04 until 07/2013 School project "Politik – Gesellschaft – Wissen", focusing on the culture of remembrance and dealing with history, Schillergymnasium Münster

     

    Professional Experience

    since 10/2014 Editorial Board Member Textpraxis. Digital Journal for Philology
    11/2009 until 01/2014 Research assistant at the Institute for Nordic Philology, University of Münster
    10/2011 until 03/2012 Lecturer and Representative for Internationalization, Institute for Nordic Philology, University of Münster
    03/2011 until 05/2011 Research assistant for translation work (Swedish-German), Collaborative Research Center 496, Uni Münster

     

  • Publications and Conference Papers

    Conference Papers

    08/2015 "En mediekritisk betraktelse av mediedekningen om Knut Hamsun-jubileet 2009". 6th International Hamsun Conference of the Institute of Culture and Literature. University of Tromsø.
    02/2015 "Skandalisierung von Autorschaft im Spannungsfeld von nationaler Identität und Geschichte". Conference of the Institute for Communication and Media Research at the German Sport University. Cologne.
    01/2015 „Schriftsteller – Gesellschaft – Diskurs. Diskursanalytische Überlegungen zu einem kulturpolitischen Phänomen“. Conference of the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences. Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.
    since 2012 Project presentations at various workshops, masterclasses and conferences. Münster, Hamarøy (Norway) and Sortland (Norway).
  • Scholarships and Awards

    Scholarships

    since 10/2013 Scholarship holder Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst
    05/2010 DAAD scholarship holder, scholarship award for short-term study visits for students' final theses