Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies

Our cultural studies programme is as diverse as cultural studies itself: scholarly examination of artistic-cultural forms of expression such as literature, music, theatre, dance, art and religion are represented here just as much as philosophical-sociological analyses of socio-cultural conditions. Whether historical-comparative or contemporary, theoretical or empirical, our series of publications and introductions take up current paradigms of cultural studies research.

Publication Series

Calliphaea

Literature — Theatre — Film

Edited by Julia Brühne and David Klein

In Greek mythology, Calliphaea was a river nymph, who together with her sisters inhabited a spring which, according to Pausanias, was said to have flowed into the river Cytherus. Inspired by the place Calliphaea dwelt—the place at which two entities merge—this series of publications examines the connections and permeations which occur in the field that encompasses literature, theatre and film. These three genres should be examined both separately and in terms of their connection to each other. Of particular interest in this respect are, above all, works which (partially) illuminate literature, theatre, film and their different genres as results of various historical situations of reception, exchange and translation. The series publishes not only anthologies and conference proceedings, but also monographs, for instance dissertations.

Catholica

Sources and Studies on the Literary and Cultural History of Modern Catholicism

Edited by Caroline Emmelius, Annette Langner-Pitschmann, Thomas Pittrof und Daniel Weidner

While the ecclesial, theological and social history of modern Catholicism, which has developed since 1800, has been researched extensively, its manifestations with regard to literary and cultural history have tended to receive merely sparse attention and be regarded with extreme reservation. In this regard, the series entitled »Catholica« breaks new ground, primarily in German-speaking research into this field. By being the first series to raise awareness of the broad spectrum of the image of literary Catholicism since 1800 in terms of literary aesthetics, historical assessment, cultural appraisal, the history of piety and intellectualism, and the intensive interdependence between and permeation of authors and milieus, plus their mutual distancing from each other, it shows that Catholic literature is also part of the plural modernity of the 19th and 20th centuries, which abounds with self-contradictions.

To the series

Comics|Histories

Edited by Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto, Felix Giesa and Christina Meyer

This book series aims to foreground histories and genealogies, including preconditions of
what appears as comics, graphic narrative, manga etc. in a global perspective today. It engages
not only with theories and methods employed in Comics Studies so far, but also with
crucial disciplinary concerns of history (as specified, for example, in literary, cultural, media,
or art histories). Studies that appear in the series shall approach comics and their histories
from a transnational, while culturally situated, perspective. Spotlight is further put
on the historiography of the expanding field of Comics Studies itself.

Cultura

Edited by Gabriele Brandstetter, Johannes Lehmann, Andrea Polaschegg, Ursula Renner and Beate
Söntgen

The series Cultura brings together studies from the fields of literature, art, theatre, dance and film studies that focus on cultural studies, analysing culture in the form of semiotic processes and practices, games of meaning and media dynamics, and forms and transformations. This focus on the connection between aisthesis, poiesis and praxis builds a bridge between cultural studies and aesthetic phenomena. The series is thus a place of continuous reflection on and further development of cultural studies in the humanities.

To the series

European Cultures of Communication

Edited by Rotraud von Kulessa and Marina Ortrud Hertrampf

Academic Advisory Board: Nicolas Brucker, Magda Campanini, Marcela Gladys Crespo Buiturón, Pieetsie Feenstra, Victor Ferretti, Fabio Forner, Sabine Schwarze, Catriona Seth, Christoph Vatter, Kirsten von Hagen, Christian von Tschilschke

German-speaking Romance studies has always addressed the issue of the reciprocal relationships between the regions of northern and eastern Europe and Europe’s Mediterranean regions as well as between multilingual Europe and the Romance-speaking world through its research subjects: Romance languages, literature and cultures. The linguistic, literary, cultural and media forms of expression in Romance studies represent cultures of communication which, despite their diversity, have one thing in common: they function as cultural mediators and, in our globalised world in particular, fulfil key bridging functions in and for Europe. This (new) Romance studies series »Europäische Kommunikationskulturen« (European Cultures of Communication) publishes dissertations, monographs and anthologies from the fields of linguistics, literary studies, cultural studies and media studies which address this subject area in the broadest sense. It also publishes comparative works with a Romance studies focus. The series takes account of the multilingualism in the Romance-speaking world (and Europe), which means that it also welcomes publications written in both Romance languages and English in addition to those in German. Submissions must undergo a peer review process conducted by our academic advisory board before being accepted for publication.

Examining Art through Sources

Edited by Ulrich Pfisterer. Founded by Norbert Gramaccini

The series »Quellen zur Kunst« (Examining Art through Sources) presents the works of art it examines from the perspective of one or several contemporary literary sources. The starting point for these examinations is the traditional understanding of a painting, sculpture, piece of architecture or graphic representation. The sources used can take the form of not only literary essays, artists’ statements and iconographic ensembles, but also, for example, pamphlets, chronicles or reviews.

To the series

Freiburger Romanistische Arbeiten

Edited by Andreas Gelz, Ursula Hennigfeld, Hermann Herlinghaus, Daniel Jacob, Rolf Kailuweit, Thomas Klinkert and Stefan Pfänder

The »Freiburger Romanistische Arbeiten« is the most important series of publications for Romance studies in Freiburg. It publishes projects funded by the Dr Jürgen and Irmgard Ulderup Foundation, including outstanding postgraduate dissertations. These research studies from the fields of linguistics, literary studies and cultural studies fulfil the series’ goal of publishing works based on both intermedia and interdisciplinary research, as well as those that address up-to-date, contemporary issues. Its volumes are mostly published in German, but also in French, Italian, Spanish and English.

To the series

Oeconomica

Studies on the Economic History of Ancient Greece and Rome

Edited by Kerstin Droß-Krüpe and Patrick Reinard

Every facet of the world of Ancient Rome and Greece was either directly or indirectly characterised by economic aspects that influenced the actions of individuals, institutions and other factions. Originally a primarily peripheral subject, the economics of antiquity has now become a focus of research, to which both the resolution of the debate surrounding primitivism and modernism and a broader range of sources on this subject have contributed. Through papyrological, epigraphic und archaeological sources, questions relating to economic history can be analysed and discussed more comprehensively and in greater detail today. This series examines the Greek–Roman economies from as broad a perspective as possible and, using modern economic models of abstraction, develops new material on this subject. All monographs and anthologies submitted for publication, either in German or English, undergo an anonymous peer review process.

To the series

Pop: Culture | Media | Aesthetics

Edited by Daniel Illger and Christine Lötscher

Video games and TV series, YouTube and TikTok, blockbusters and bestsellers—our times are highly influenced by popular media and their consumption. In this context, this series of publications endeavours to contribute to research into the workings and mechanisms of this form of popular culture from the perspective of media aesthetics. The assumption that an analysis of popular culture phenomena can help to understand the longing, fears, hopes, dreams and problems of media consumers, which transcend the boundaries between milieus and cultures and are potentially in their millions, is fundamental in this respect. Research into popular culture can therefore serve as an instrument in cultural analysis and the diagnosis of eras and can contribute to intensifying how we examine the present, which, affected by global crises and conflicts, can then inspire apocalyptic scenarios as well as transhuman visions of the future and eco-critical utopias. This series publishes monographs, anthologies and essays from the fields of literary studies, aesthetics, film studies and media studies

Scenae

Edited by Gabriele Brandstetter and Clemens Risi

Monographs, anthologies and conference proceedings that address subjects from the fields of dance, theatre studies and musical theatre studies are published in the series entitled »Scenae«, which was founded in 2013. In view of the multifaceted variety of the performing arts and media, it examines issues from an interdisciplinary perspective and constantly bears in mind the fascinating interplay between theory and practice and between academic study and art.

To the series

‘Spaces of Appearance’

Edited by Jörn Etzold and Martin Jörg Schäfer

For Hannah Arendt, a space of appearance is formed “when people act and speak with one another” and, in doing so, constantly reassess the power relations that create and maintain this space. Beyond Arendt, however, these negotiation processes must also be extended to those with and between non-human beings. The books in this series examine the rules of access to spaces of appearance, their infrastructures and the experiences that are tested or jeopardised in them. At the interface between theatre and other cultural studies, performance studies, political, post- and decolonial theory, anthropology as well as queer and gender studies, these works ask who or what can appear, where and how and under what conditions. How do the scenic arts experiment with possible forms of appearance and make its spaces tangible?

 

Studies of the Baltic Sea Region

Edited by Alexander Drost, Marie-Theres Federhofer und Clemens Räthel

Studies of the Baltic Sea Region is an interdisciplinary series that brings together research contributions on the Baltic Sea region from the fields of history, literature, linguistics and the social sciences. From a primarily cultural studies perspective, we understand the Baltic Sea region as a culturally, geographically and politically connected region characterised by a diversity of cultures, unique ecosystems and its special geopolitical significance. The series offers a platform for individual and collaborative book projects in German or English that focus on (historical) developments, changes, concepts and cultural exchange within this region. Contributions can be submitted by senior researchers or doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
Thanatological Studies

Edited by Thorsten Benkel

Academic Advisory Board: Corina Caduff, Sonja Kmec, Matthias Meitzler, Dirk Pörschmann and Bernt Schnettler

Dying, death and grief have to be regarded as fundamental aspects of cultural coexistence because humans cannot avoid dealing with them when they live with others. A diminishing circle of friends and family, the pain of loss, the transformation of a living being into a dead body, the symbols and rituals of saying farewell to the deceased, plus the contribution of medical, religious and other forms of expertise along with many other aspects reveal, on the one hand, the potential of the utter devastation a person’s death can trigger. On the other, these forms of expression and modes of behaviour also underline that dying and death are not purely natural occurrences. They transpire amid societal mechanisms which reflect a large and, at times, contradictory variety of reflective processes in addressing the finite nature of life. Death is a human’s greatest certainty in life. In this respect, the series of publications »Thanatological Studies« provides a forum for both theoretical and empirical works which address the social, normative, aesthetic, spiritual, bodily, psychological and other facets of death and dying, and by extension grief and remembrance, from the perspectives of different academic disciplines.

To the series

Theory and History of Cultural Techniques

Edited by Bernhard Siegert and Harun Maye

Research into cultural techniques is explicitly opposed to the ontology of philosophical concepts. There is no human being who is independent of the cultural techniques of hominization, there is no time that is independent of the cultural techniques of time measurement, there is no space that is independent of the cultural techniques of space development, etc. When conducting research into cultural techniques, the humanities and cultural studies do not examine artists, ideas or the grand semantics of high culture, but the many media-related operations from which concepts such as images, words, numbers and also ›human beings‹ and ›history‹ originally emerged. The series Theorie und Geschichte der Kulturtechniken (Theory and History of Cultural Techniques) publishes monographs and conference proceedings on the techniques of media use. Works on the techniques of the body, archiving, time management, navigation, animal and plant domestication, and much more supplement studies on ›basic cultural techniques‹, such as reading, writing, arithmetic and creating pictures.

Transgressions

Literature, Music and the Arts around 1900

Edited by Anna-Katharina Gisbertz, Eva-Tabea Meineke and Gesa zur Nieden

This series examines the artistic and cultural diversity of literature, music and art during the period of upheaval around 1900, paying particular attention to their inter-media, comparative and interdisciplinary connections. The German term Transgression in this context describes the numerous exploratory movements and artistic experiments which developed in the context of modernisation and mechanisation and which dismantled national traditions as well as transcended the boundaries of different genres, art forms, disciplines and languages throughout Europe. Conventional perspectives were either discarded provocatively or categorically dismissed, while modern and anti-modern trends emerged in both mainstream circles and on the peripheries. Using new theoretical approaches from literary studies, musicology, cultural studies, diversity studies and gender studies, this series considers figures who have been marginalised to date, global influences due to migration, and heterogeneous developments. It also welcomes works from both the individual disciplines that comprise philology, music and the arts as well as approaches from cultural theory. The series aims to expand academic perspectives on the age of modernity.

To the series

Transoceanic Literary and Cultural Relations

Edited by Anne Kraume and Miriam Lay Brander

In humanities research, the oceans are increasingly regarded as spaces not only of physical but also symbolic transgressions of territorial, national, regional, cultural and epistemological boundaries. Following on from this oceanic turn (Elisabeth DeLoughrey), this series of publications intends to examine in particular Romance studies that promote an innovative understanding of transoceanic literary and cultural relations. It focuses on the flow of exchanges that make the manifold connections between the literature and cultures of the world manifest. Beyond the classical transatlantic focus, the transpacific contact between Latin America and Asia, the trans-Mediterranean connections between Europe, Africa and the Middle East as well as the exchange between Africa, Australia and Asia across the Indian Ocean will be examined. Based on current approaches in literary and cultural theory, the series brings together works that address the transoceanic mobility of cultural themes, forms, practices and artefacts, and not least their connection to the specific space within which they move.