General Research Interests
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Photo by: http://www.zoelitakerphotography.com
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Current Book Project
Murderous Mothers: Melodramatic Violence as Feminist Politics
My current book project traces the integration of melodramatic tropes from New German Cinema into late-20th-century German literature. Feminist film theory has long engaged with melodrama as a politically progressive mode, but it often fails to address the violence that frequently accompanies displays of melodramatic emotion. In close readings of works by R.W. Fassbinder, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Elfriede Jelinek, Christa Wolf, and Dea Loher, I highlight female characters who are not just victims, but perpetrators of melodramatic violence. Through these gender-bending portrayals of aggressive women, these works expand the political potential of the melodramatic mode and contribute to discussions about the role of negatively-connotated affects (such as anger) within contemporary feminist affect theory.
Based on my dissertation, Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000)
Advisor: Kata Gellen, Duke University
My current book project traces the integration of melodramatic tropes from New German Cinema into late-20th-century German literature. Feminist film theory has long engaged with melodrama as a politically progressive mode, but it often fails to address the violence that frequently accompanies displays of melodramatic emotion. In close readings of works by R.W. Fassbinder, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Elfriede Jelinek, Christa Wolf, and Dea Loher, I highlight female characters who are not just victims, but perpetrators of melodramatic violence. Through these gender-bending portrayals of aggressive women, these works expand the political potential of the melodramatic mode and contribute to discussions about the role of negatively-connotated affects (such as anger) within contemporary feminist affect theory.
Based on my dissertation, Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000)
Advisor: Kata Gellen, Duke University
Articles in Progress
“Women Ruining Men: Representations of #metoo and the Women of the Red Army Faction” under revision for Feminist German Studies
“Healing Antigone’s Son: Motherhood and Incarceration in Die bleierne Zeit” (Marianne and Juliane, 1981)” to be submitted to: Camera Obscura
“Living Dirty: The Pregnant Body and the State in Birgit Vanderbeke’s Die Frau mit dem Hund”
“Healing Antigone’s Son: Motherhood and Incarceration in Die bleierne Zeit” (Marianne and Juliane, 1981)” to be submitted to: Camera Obscura
“Living Dirty: The Pregnant Body and the State in Birgit Vanderbeke’s Die Frau mit dem Hund”
Graduate Research
Fulbright Research Project (Sept. 2011-Sept. 2012)
Examined conceptions of Heimat in memoirs detailing the postwar experiences of German-Jewish women
Advisor: Michael Brenner, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany
Examined conceptions of Heimat in memoirs detailing the postwar experiences of German-Jewish women
Advisor: Michael Brenner, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate Honors Thesis (2011)
Encountering Soviet Soldiers: Women’s Changing Narratives of the Sexual Violence of the Immediate Postwar Period
Advisor: Irene Kacandes, Dartmouth College
Encountering Soviet Soldiers: Women’s Changing Narratives of the Sexual Violence of the Immediate Postwar Period
Advisor: Irene Kacandes, Dartmouth College
