Prof. Dr. Ute Berns
Professor for British Studies
Address
University of Hamburg
Faculty of Humanities
Department of Language, Literature, and Media II
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Von-Melle-Park 6, Postfach #23
20146 Hamburg
Office
Room: B10004
Office hours
Contact
Tel: +49 40 42838-4851
Email: ute.berns"AT"uni-hamburg.de
Key aspects of activity
- Brit. literature and culture of the 19. and 20. centuries
- Literature and culture of the Romantic Age
- Literature and cultural theory
- Literature, Science and Ecology
Curriculum Vitae
- 2011: Professor of English Literature at the University of Hamburg
- 2009-2010: Acting Professor of English Literature at the University of Hamburg
- 2008-2009: Acting Professor of English and American Literature at the Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen
- 2004-2008: Research Fellow in the interdisciplinary research project ‚Cultures of Performance' at the Free University of Berlin
- 2007: Professorial Dissertation ('Habilitation') at the Free University of Berlin
- 1995-2003: Senior Lecturer at the Department of English and American Studies at the Technical University of Berlin
- 1995: Dr. Phil at the Free University of Berlin
- 1988-1989: Postgraduate Associate Student at the University of London, Queen Mary College
- 1988: M.A. ('Magister') English Literature / Philosophy, at the Free University of Berlin
- 1984: B.A., English Literature / Philosophy, at the University of Reading, Great Britain
Areas of Work and Research
- President of the German Society of Contemporary Theatre and Drama in
English (CDE)
http://contemporarydrama.de
- British literature and culture of the twentieth century
- The literature and culture of the romantic period
- Theory of literature and culture
- Performance, performativity
- Discourses of science, politics and gender in literature and culture
- Literature, Science and Ecology
Membership in Academic Societies
- Anglistenverband
- British Association for the Study of Romanticism (BARS)
- Gesellschaft für Englische Romantik
- The German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE)
- Zentrum Klassikforschung, Weimar
Publications
Monographs
- Science, Politics and Friendship in the Work of Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Delaware: Delaware University Press, 2012.
- Mikropolitik im englischen Gegenwartsdrama. Studien zur Dramatisierung gesellschaftlicher Macht- und Ausschließungsmechanismen bei Pinter, Keeffe und Churchill. Trier: WVT, 1997. Contemporary Drama in English
Edited Volumes and Special Issues
- Editor of 'Theaterschau Norddeutschland‘, Shakespeare Jahrbuch
- Co-editor, with Martin Middeke and Clare Wallace, of Journal of Contemporary Drama in English (2016-2023)
- with Susan Gustafson (eds.): Figurations of Knowledge in British and German Romanticism. Cluster issue of European Romantic Review 28.1 (2017).
- with Jolene Mathieson (eds): Anglistentag 2016 in Hamburg: Proceedings. Trier: WVT 2017.
- with Verena Keidel and Janina Wierzoch (eds.): Theatre and History: Cultural Transformations. Issue of Journal of Contemporary Drama in English 3.1 (2015).
- with Susan Gustafson (eds.): Expanding and Blurring Borders in German Romanticism. Cluster Issue of European Romantic Review 26.1 (2015).
- with Andrew James Johnston (eds.): Medievalism. Spec. issue of The European Journal of English Studies. 2 (2011).
- Solo Performances: Staging the Early Modern Self in England. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2010. Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft.
- with Michael Bradshaw (eds.): The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. The Nineteenth Century Series. (Routledge Paperback 2019).
Articles and Book Chapters
- “Coleridge’s Ecologies and Energy Poetics: The Case of Lyrical Ballads”. Romantische Ökologien: Vielfältige Naturen um 1800. Ed. by Roland Borgards, Frederike Middelhoff and Barbara Thums. Neue Romantikforschung, vol. 4. Berlin: 2023. Metzler. 227-248.
- “Energy Ecologies in Joanna Baillie’s ‚Address to a Steam-Vessel‘ (1823)”. Romantic Ecologies. Ed. by David Kerler and Martin Middeke. Trier: 2023. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. 57-74.
- "Anthropocene Speculations: Steam Technology in Coleridge’s „Rime of the Ancient Mariner“ (1798)“. European Romantic Review, 34:1 (2023) 19-46.
- "Die Englischsprachige Dramenwerkstatt im LCB 1964: Zirkulationen des Absurden". Berliner Weltliteraturen: Internationale Literarische Beziehungen zwischen Ost und West nach dem Mauerbau. (WeltLiteraturen / World Literatures 21). Ed. Jutta Müller-Tamm. De Gruyter 2021. 171-199.
- with Paul Hamann: “Kritisches Lesen in der Literaturwissenschaft – Pigoons und andere Gentechnische Visionen in Margaret Atwoods Roman Oryx and Crake“. Kritisches Denken – Verantwortung der Geisteswissenschaften. Ed. Ulrike Job. Tübingen: Narr, 2020. Herausforderungen für die Geisteswissenschaften 3. 93-107.
- “Das Klassische in der Prosa T. S. Eliots: Opfer und Performanz.“ Die Rede vom Klassischen. Ed. Thorsten Valk. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2020. 59-79. Schriftenreihe des Zentrums für Klassikforschung 5.
- “Scaling Histories and Relating Systems: Figurations of Deep Time in the Poetry of Thomas Lovell Beddoes”. The Lost Romantics: Forgotten Poets, Neglected Works and One-Hit Wonders. Ed. Norbert Lennartz. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 133-150.
- “George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874)“. Handbook of the English Novel, 1830–1900. Ed. Martin Middeke and Monika Pietrzak-Franger. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020. 397–414. Handbooks of English and American Studies 9.
- “The Tempest in the Anthropocene: Preliminary Reflections.” Shakespeare Jahrbuch 153 (2017): 100-116.
- “Science and Knowledge.” Handbook of British Romanticism. Ed. Ralf Haekel, De Gruyter 2017. 135-163.
- “Historiographic Metafiction and the History of Nature: John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Graham Swift’s Waterland“. The Return of the Historical Novel: Thinking About Fiction and History After Historiographic Metafiction. Eds. Andrew James Johnston and Kai Wiegandt, Winter 2017. 47-73.
- “Introduction: Theatre and History – Cultural Transformations.” Theatre and History: Cultural Transformations. Issue of Journal of Contemporary Drama in English 3.1 (2015): 1–11.
- “Poetic Genres in the Romantic Age II: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s, John Keats’s and Lord Byron’s Odes.” A History of British Poetry: Genres – Developments – Interpretations. Ed. Sibylle Baumbach, Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning. Trier: WVT 2015, 229–242.
- “Terror, Tiere und Publikum: Das Lachen in Martin McDonaghs The Lieutenant of Inishmore.“ Wer lacht, zeigt Zähne. Spielarten des Komischen. Ed. Johann N. Schmidt, Felix C. H. Sprang and Roland Weidle. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2014. 187–196.
- “Artificial Life, Science and Reflexivity in James Whale’s Frankenstein." Discovering the Human: Life Science and the Arts in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries.'" Ed. Sabine Blackmore and Ralf Haekel. Göttingen: Vandenhoek, 2013. 187–204.
- “New Historicism and Cultural Materialism.“ New Theories, Models and Methods in Literary and Cultural Studies: Theory into Practice. Ed. Greta Olson and Ansgar Nünning. Trier: WVT, 2013. 61–80.
- “Romantic Poetry, Scientific Discourse and the Aesthetics of Nature“. Anglistentag 2012 Potsdam: Proceedings. Ed. Katrin Röder and Ilse Wischer. Trier: WTV, 2013. 165–179.
- “Shakespeares heldische Lukretia. Gender, Genre und Ekphrasis.“ Heroen und Heroisierungen in der Renaissance. Ed. Achim Aurnhammer and Manfred Pfister. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013. 219–234. Wolfenbütteler Abhandlungen zur Renaissanceforschung 28.
- “Thomas Lovell Beddoes.“ Blackwell Encyclopedia of Romanticism. Ed. Frederick Burwick, Diane Hoeveler and Nancy Goslee. Oxford: Blackwell, 2012.
- “Romantic Verse Drama: Joanna Baillie’s De Montfort and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Cenci.“ A History of British Drama: Genres – Developments – Interpretations. Ed. Sybille Baumbach, Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning. Trier: WTV, 2011. 193–207.
- “Ways of Seeing: Anatomy and Natural Philosophy in Shakespeare’s King Lear.“ The Renaissance and the Dialogue between Science, Art and Literature. Klaus Bergdolt and Manfred Pfister. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011. 27–42. Wolfenbüttler Abhandlungen zur Renaissanceforschung Vol. 26.
- “Performing Anatomy in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.“ Shakespeare and Rome: Questioning Bodies, Geographies, Cosmographies. Ed Maria Del Sapio. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2010. 95–108.
- “Performativity.“ Handbook of Narratology. Ed. Peter Hühn et al. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. 370–383.
- “The Concept of Performativity in Narratology: Mapping a Field of Investigation.“ The European Journal of English Studies1 (2009): 93–109.
- “Interioritätskonstruktionen und Freundschaftsdiskurs bei Shakespeare.“ Shakespeare Jahrbuch 144 (2008): 147–167.
- “Die Verheißung der Hexen: Zur Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion von Interiorität in Shakespeares Macbeth.“ Drohung und Verheißung: Subjekt, Verkörperung, Macht. Eva-Maria Heisler, Elke Koch and Thomas Scheffer. Freiburg: Rombach, 2007. 139–165.
- “Thomas Lovell Beddoes and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.“ British and European Romanticisms: Selected Papers from the Munich Conference of the German Society for English Romanticism. Ed. Christoph Bode and Sebastian Domsch. Trier: WVT 2007. 203–215.
- “Performing Genres in Death’s Jest-Book: Tragedy as Harlequinade.“ The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Ed. Ute Berns and Michael Bradshaw. Aldershot: Ashgate 2007. 137–155.
- with Michael Bradshaw: “Introduction.“ The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Ed. Ute Berns and Michael Bradshaw. Aldershot: Ashgate 2007. 1–33.
- “Thomas Lovell Beddoes and the German Sciences of Life.“ Poetica1-2 (2006): 137–165.
- “The Politics of Revolution in Thomas Lovell Beddoes’s Death’s Jest-Book.“ Romantic Voices, Romantic Poetics: Selected Papers from the Regensburg Conference of the German Society for English Romanticism. Ed. Christoph Bode Katharina Rennhak. Trier: WVT, 2005. 97–107.
- “History and Violence in British Epic Theatre: From Bond and Churchill to Kane and Ravenhill?.“ New Beginnings in 20th-Century Drama and Theatre. Ed. Christiane Schlote and Peter Zenzinger. Trier: WVT, 2003. 49–73.
- “Crisis of Expression: Romantic Laughter in Maturin’s Novel Melmoth the Wanderer and Beyond.“ A History of English Laughter. Ed. Manfred Pfister. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002. 83–98.
- “Barrie Keeffe.“ British and Irish Dramatists Since World War II. Third Series. Ed. John Bull. Detroit et al.: The Gale Group, 2001. 233–241. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 245.
- “Modi der Fremdkonstruktion: Orientalismus in Charlotte Brontës Roman Villette.“ Poetica1–2 (2000): 99–124.
- “Sprechakttheorie.“ Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie. Ed. Ansgar Nünning. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008 (Reprinted in: Grundbegriffe der Literaturtheorie. Ed. Ansgar Nünning. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2004).
- “Political Drama and the Micropolitics of Language.“ Drama and Reality. Ed. Bernhard Reitz. Trier: WVT, 1996. 111–123. Contemporary Drama in English Studies 3.
Shorter Articles in Encyclopedias
- “Beddoes, Thomas Lovell.“ Metzler-Lexikon englischsprachiger Autorinnen und Autoren. Eberhardt Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2002.
- “Barrett Browning, Elizabeth.“ Metzler Autorinnen Lexikon. Ed. U. Hechtfischer et al. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1998.
- “Brontë, Charlotte.“ Metzler Autorinnen Lexikon.
- “Churchill, Caryl.“ Metzler Autorinnen Lexikon. 1998.
- “Edgeworth, Maria.“ Metzler Autorinnen Lexikon.
- “Austin.“ Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie. Metzler, 2008.
- “Grice.“ Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie. 2008 [1998].
- “Searle.“ Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie. 2008 [1998].
- “Sprechakt.“ Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie. 2008 [1998]. Reprinted in Grundbegriffe der Literaturtheorie, Metzler 2004.
Interviews and Miscellanea
- with Stephan Karschay, Benjamin Kohlmann, Anca-Raluca Radu: „Instabile Herrscherfiguren im Norden: Zwischen nuanciertem Psychogramm und autoritärer Pose.“ (Theaterschau Norddeutschland). Shakespeare Jahrbuch 156 (2020): 207-221.
- with Verena Keidel, Monika Pietrzak-Franger „Fokussierung und Diffusion: Shakespeare in Norddeutschland.“ (Theaterschau Norddeutschland). Shakespeare Jahrbuch 155 (2019): 191-199.
- Review of “John Kerrigan, Shakespeare’s Binding Language”. Shakespeare Jahrbuch 154 (2018): 253-254.
- „Trommel und Kran, Blutbad und Vorhang: Shakespeare in Norddeutschland zwischen Konzept und Klamauk.“ (Theaterschau Norddeutschland). Shakespeare Jahrbuch 154 (2018): 173-181.
- “Interview mit ‚Domradio Köln.’“ 13 October 2005. Radio. (interview on the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Harold Pinter)
- Review of Resurrection Songs: The Poetry of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, by Michael Bradshaw. La Questione Romantica 12–13 (2003): 210–213.
- Review of Thomas Lovell Beddoes’ Death’s Jest-Book: The 1829 Text, by Michael Bradshaw. La Questione Romantica 12–13 (2003): 207–210.
- transl., “Traum vom Sterben“ and “Lied zur Auferstehung.“ By Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Englische und amerikanische Dichtung 2: Von Dryden bis Tennyson. Ed. Werner von Koppenfels und Manfred Pfister. München: H.C. Beck, 2000. 377.
- Review of Literary Englands. Versions of Englishness in Modern Writing, by David Gervais. Journal for the Study of British Cultures 4.1–2 (1997): 248–250.
- Review of Einführung in die feministische Literaturwissenschaft, by Lena Lindhoff. Feministische Studien 14.2 (1996): 135–138.
- Howard Barker. “Interview with Howard Barker.“ Interview by Ute Berns. Hard Times 53 (1995): 16–22.
- Review of Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance, ed. Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby. Radical Philosophy 53 (1989): 43–44.
Teaching
Ü = Übung, PS = Proseminar, HS = Hauptseminar, VS = Vertiefungsseminar (B. A.), KL = Kolloquium, VL= Vorlesung, SS = Sommersemester, WS = Wintersemester
Universität Hamburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
For teaching from winter term 2011/ 2012 onwards, please refer to "Vorlesungsverzeichnisse".
| SS 11 | VL | Englische Literatur und Kultur des 20. Jahrhunderts (mit Susanne Rupp) |
| VL | Grundlagen der Anglistischen und Amerikanistischen Literaturwissenschaft | |
| HS/ VS | The Historical Novel: Historiographic Metafiction | |
| PS | Shorter Modernist Fiction | |
| PS | Grundlagen der Anglistischen und Amerikanistischen Literaturwissenschaft | |
| Koll | Examenskolloquium | |
| SS 10 | VL | Englische Literatur und Kultur des 18. Jahrhunderts (mit Susanne Rupp) |
| HS/ VS | Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Text and Films | |
| HS/ VS | Rights and Revolution in British Romanticism | |
| PS | The Novels of Jane Austen and Selected Film Versions | |
| Koll | Forschungskolloquium | |
| WS 09/ 10 | VL | Englische Literatur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (mit Susanne Rupp) |
| HS/ VS | Shakespeare’s Sonnets | |
| HS/ VS | Two South African Novelists: John M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer | |
| PS | Theory and Analysis of Drama: From William Shakespeare to Sarah Kane | |
| Koll | Examenskolloquium (vierzehntäglich) | |
| Koll | Forschungskolloquium (vierzehntäglich) |
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Institut für Anglistik
| SS 09 | VL | British and Irish Drama and Theatre in the Twentieth Century |
| HS | Ekphrasis – Relations of Word and Image in Literature and Beyond | |
| BA/ VS | Slavery and Abolition in Contemporary British Culture and Postcolonial Theory | |
| PS | Introduction to the Analysis of Drama | |
| WS 08/ 09 | VL | Literature and Culture in the Romantic Period (1780-1830) |
| HS | Politics and Poetry in the British Romantic Period | |
| HS | The Human Clone: Fictions of Identity and Alterity in Anglo-American Culture | |
| Koll | Recent Theories of Genre in Literature and Film |
Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Englische Philologie
| SS 08 | HS/ VS | The Sciences of Life in British Romantic and Victorian Culture |
| WS 07/ 08 | HS/ VS | The Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro |
| SS 07 | HS/ VS | Poetry around 1600 |
| WS 06/ 07 | HS/ VS | Apocalyptic Vision(s) in British Romanticism |
Technische Universität Berlin, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
| WS 00/ 01 | HS | Inszenierungen des Todes: von Shakespeare bis Beckett |
| PS | Shorter Modernist Fiction: Mansfield and Joyce | |
| SS 00 | HS | English Romantic Drama |
| PS | T. S. Eliot | |
| WS 99/ 00 | HS | Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Text, Translation, Performance |
| PS/ Ü | Heroische Maskulinität in Romanfiguren des 20. Jahrhunderts (mit Karin Hausen, Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung) | |
| SS 99 | PS/ Ü | British Representations of World War I |
| PS | The Rise of the Gothic Novel | |
| WS 98/ 99 | PS | Brecht in Britain: Episches Theater in Großbritannien und die neue englische Theaterszene (Unter Einbeziehung vier aktueller Produktionen an Berliner Bühnen) |
| PS | Dialogue and Difference: Elisabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning | |
| SS 98 | PS/ Ü | Cultural Studies: Essential Theoretical Texts |
| PS | Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poetry, Drama, Prose | |
| WS 97/ 98 | PS | Metaphysical Poets |
| PS/ Ü | British Culture and the French Revolution | |
| SS 97 | PS | English Revenge Tragedies |
| PS | .Romantische Lyrik | |
| WS 96/ 97 | PS | Between Restauration and Sentimental Drama: John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera |
| PS | Theatricality in the Novel: Fanny Burney’s Evelina and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park | |
| SS 96 | PS | Der englische Roman des 18. Jahrhunderts: Erzählmodelle im kulturgeschichtlichen Kontext |
| PS | Einführung in die literaturwissenschaftliche Genderforschung (II): Virginia Woolf, The Waves | |
| WS 95/ 96 | PS | Einführung in die literaturwissenschaftliche Genderforschung (I): Charlotte Brontë, Villette |
| PS | Zeitgenössische englische Dramatikerinnen |
Funding, Conferences and Research
Conferences and Funding
|
2017 |
“Modernisms and Modernities East, West and South: Comparing Literary and Cultural Experiences“; Fudan University, Shanghai, 19–22 Juli (with Prof. Susanne Rohr, Hamburg University; Prof. Nick Mansfield and Dr. Toby Davidson, Macquarie University, Sydney; Prof. Zhu Jianxin and Prof. Sun Jian, Fudan University, Shanghai)
Funded by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) |
|
2016 |
“Deutscher Anglistentag”; Hamburg University, 21–24 September (in charge, with Profes. Stephan Karschay, Monika Pietrzak-Franger, Peter Siemund) Funded by Hamburgische Wissenschaftliche Stiftung |
| 2014 | “Theatre and History: Cultural Transformations” (23rd annual meeting of the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English, CDE); Elsa-Brändström Haus, Hamburg-Blankenese, 19–22 June
Funded by The German Research Fundation (DFG) |
| 2009 | "Methoden in der Anglistischen und Amerikanistischen Kultur-, Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft“; Conference Centre, Bad Bederkesa, 25–28 March (in charge, with Profes. Liselotte Anderwald, Alexander Berg, Roger Lüdeke, Christian Huck, Birgit Neumann and Erik Redling)
Funded by The German Research Fundation (DFG) |
| 2007 | “Solo Performances: Staging the Early Modern Self”; FU Berlin, 22–25 November (with Prof. Manfred Pfister at the Collaborative Research Centre “Performing Cultures”, Berlin [SFB 447: „Kulturen des Performativen“])
Funded by The German Research Fundation (DFG) |
| 2006 | Co-organization of “Gewalt durch Sprache: Rhetoriken verletzenden Sprechens“, annual meeting of the Collaborative Research Centre “Performing Cultures” (SFB 447: “Kulturen des Performativen“, Berlin); FU Berlin, 9–11 November
Funded by The German Research Fundation (DFG) |
| 2005 | Organization and moderation of the panels “Figurations of Interiority“ and “Performing the Self“ during the joint annual conferences of The Renaissance Society of America and The Society for Renaissance Studies; Cambridge, UK, 6–9 April |
Research Projects, Funding and Scholarships
| Summer term 2019 | DFG-Fellowship, Fellow of the DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe »Imaginarien der Kraft« (Centre of Advanced Studies »Imaginaria of Force«), DFG scholarship |
| 2007-2009 | Research project “Shakespeare and the Life Sciences“
Funded by the European Research Network ACUME 2, “Interfacing Sciences, Literature and Humanities: an Interdisciplinary Approach“ |
| 2003 | Post-doctoral presentation at the joint annual conferences of The North American Society for the Study of Romanticism and The British Association of Romantic Studies in New York
Travel grant by The German Research Fundation (DFG) |
| 2002 | Co-coordinator of the subproject (and its extension): “Figurations of Interiority in Early Modern England“ at the Collaborative Research Centre “Performing Cultures” (SFB 447: „Kulturen des Performativen“, Berlin); FU Berlin
Funded by The German Research Fundation (DFG) |
| 1989-1992 | NaFöG doctoral research scholarship of the state of Berlin (now known as: Berlin’s Elsa-Neumann-Scholarship) |
| 1988-1989 | British Council Research Award: one-year doctoral research scholarship, Queen Mary University of London |
| 1982 | Admission to the German National Academic Foundation |