English Studies at Goethe University was one of the first departments in Germany to establish the field of British cultural, intellectual and social history (KIS) alongside literary studies.
Still today, our research and teaching rests in equal measure on the two pillars of literary studies and cultural studies, both of which we investigate systematically and in their historical dimension.
Our key areas of research are currently memory studies, literary anthropology, posthumanism, gender and queer studies, media theory, reception studies, performance studies, postclassical narratology, and narratives of hope. A shared interest that shapes our research and teaching is the adaptation and actualisation of classical and canonical texts, figures and myths, with a focus on their long-term mnemohistories, and their appearance in popular culture, constructions of gender, and representations of war and violence.
In literary studies, we teach British and Irish literatures from the 16th century to the present, with a special focus on recent developments in literary theory, cultural criticism, media culture studies and a firm grounding in literary history. Throughout, we engage with literature as a cultural practice and our methods include discourse analysis, context-oriented readings, narrative analysis, and the study of genre-crossings.
In cultural studies, our teaching addresses the cultural work of literature and other media in their historical contexts. We consider various media genres and formats, including film and TV, the visual arts, comics, performances and public rituals, and social media (BookTok, Instagram), as well as their adaptations and remediations.
