Stefan Bronner
Associate Professor in Residence
Literatures, Cultures and Languages
I completed my Dr. phil. in Germanistik at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg. My doctoral research led to the publication of the first monograph on the highly discussed contemporary Swiss author Christian Kracht. Published by Francke in 2012, the dissertation examines questions of representation in his novels from the perspective of Continental subject philosophy and psychoanalysis. Throughout the analysis, I draw on international film, literature and philosophy, including D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, and the ancient Chinese philosophical work I Ching. Importantly, the study identifies a spiritual turn in contemporary German culture.
I have taught a variety of German language, literature, and culture courses from the beginning to the advanced levels. I am very interested in creative and non-traditional teaching methods and response-techniques.
My scholarly training, research and teaching interests encompass German literary and cultural history from the Baroque to the present. Currently, a major emphasis of my research is on narratives of spirituality and present-day identity politics. Since the financial crisis hit Europe in 2009, many literary works and films of young German-speaking authors are no longer searching for meaning within the self, as the neoliberal logic suggests, but rather in new forms of spirituality, which go back to the ideas of early Romanticism. Neoliberalism’s lack of a potential to form identity narratives has created a longing for a secret alliance between the self and nature for young artists. Other scenarios suggest a desire to merge reality and art. Furthermore, I recently finalised an edited volume on Christian Kracht’s world literature, which was published with De Gruyter in October 2018.
Specific areas of interest are:
19th century to contemporary German literature, film and culture
Contemporary German Identity Narratives
Literary & media theory
Philosophy, Psychoanalysis & Cultural Studies
Ethics of science
Strategic mediation of literature (Founder of Literaturhaus Augsburg)
Terrorism
