Beckmann, Marie
Dissertationsthema:
" Patterns of the Posthuman: Negotiating Community in Ancient Greek Tragedy and post-45 U.S. American Literatures." (Working Title)
Kontaktadresse an der Universität Würzburg:
Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
Erstbetreuerin: Prof. Dr. MaryAnn Snyder-Körber
Zweitbetreuende:
Klasse in der Graduiertenschule: "Environmental Humanities"
Promotion in der Graduiertenschule ab WS 2024/25.
Abstract:
My dissertation intends to explore negotiations of community based on the discussion of the challenges trauma and disability constitute in cultural productions at two different points in time: the beginning of democracy, in Ancient Greek tragedies, and its current critical state—which some describe as democracy in crisis—, in post-45 U.S. American literatures. Using trauma and disability as examples of challenges communities face and negotiate, I will analyze how they are explored through posthuman patterns, namely the animal, the zombie, and the alien. The focus of my project lies on the function and workings of these patterns in discussing dehumanization, marginalization, alienation and their effects on the individual and community. My project proposes an alternative to reception-based models of analyzing literature by developing the concept of weaving, which I define as creating a pattern-based dialogue between different texts and exploring how these patterns—in this case the animal, alien, and zombie—work to negotiate questions of community in literatures of the past and present. Instead of evaluating representations of trauma and disability, my thesis centers on the complex relation between processes of dehumanization, alienation, and marginalization and their entanglement with trauma and disability that are discussed through the animal, zombie, and alien patterns in my corpus texts. Therefore, my approach departs from established models of trauma and disability studies and reapproaches them through analytical tools of literary and cultural studies.
