Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Gender as a Category of Knowledge

PhD Project:

A Line of Their Own: Operations of the Formless on Gender Configurations in the Works of Anglo-Jewish Avantgarde Artists and Writers, 1910 – 1937

Description of the Project

In my project, George Bataille’s concept of the »formless« will guide my readings of texts and paintings by the Anglo-Jewish artists David Bomberg, John Rodker, and Isaac Rosenberg. My study will position the works of these under-researched British modernists in the context of the dynamic cultural landscape in London between 1910 and 1937. A major focus will be on textual and visual manifestations of gender configurations, especially with regard to »Jewish masculinities« before, during, and after the Great War. Steering clear of essentializations of »otherness,« I will also explore the possible mechanisms that contributed to the marginalization of these works. The »formless« is a key instrument to trace aesthetic formation processes, as well as to make the materiality of language and visual figuration palpable. This is specified in terms of disclosure and erosion of gender categories and their entanglement with class, sexuality, and ethnicity.

Particulars

Anne-Julia Schoen, MA in English and American literatures, history and psychology in Hamburg and Berlin. 2010 assistant teacher at the Department of English Studies at HU-Berlin. 2011-2013 associate postgraduate student at the research group "Gender as a Category of Knowledge", 2013 scholarship holder Caroline-von-Humboldt Stiftung and participant in the Joint-PhD program between HU-Berlin and King's College London.

Selected Publications

Contested Space. Within and Without Whitechapel. Locating other spaces in the letters of Isaac Rosenberg. In: Space in Life Writing, hg. v. Eveline Kilian u.a., London 2014 (im Erscheinen).

Rezension zu: What Can a Body Do? Praktiken und Figurationen des Körpers in den Kulturwissenschaften. Netzwerk Körper (Hg.), Frankfurt a. M./New York 2012. In: Bulletin Info 47, hg. v. Zentrum für transdisziplinäre Geschlechterstudien, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 2013 (im Erscheinen).

Tagungsbericht zur Internationalen Konferenz »Kollektivität nach der Subjektkritik – Collectivity Beyond Identity« 28. – 30.06.2012. In: Bulletin Info 45, hg. v. Zentrum für transdisziplinäre Geschlechterstudien, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 2012.

zus. m. Lukas Engelmann, Marietta Kesting u. Katrin Köppert: Visuelle Kultur und Theorien des Bildes. Eine
Rezensionsdiskussion. In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 7 (2012).

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