Anke Biendarra
Associate Professor, European Languages and Studies
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
Faculty Director, UCI Study Abroad Center, 2018 - 2023
Faculty Director Northern Europe, University of California Study Abroad Programs (UCEAP), 2015-2018
Director of European Studies 2019 -
Department Chair (2023 - ), European Languages and Studies
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle
M.A., University of Muenster, Germany
M.A., University of Muenster, Germany
University of California, Irvine
HIB 212
Mail Code: 3150
Irvine, CA 92697
HIB 212
Mail Code: 3150
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
German and European literature and culture of the 20th/21st century, esp. pop literature , GDR/reunification. Critical Europan Culture Studies, migration studies, transnationalism, memory studies, gender studies.
Academic Distinctions
Gisela Brinker-Gabler Outstanding Essay Award, Council for European Studies/ European Culture Research Network (2022)
Dean’s Honoree, Humanities Teaching Award, UCI (2015)
American Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Association of University Women (2008-09)
Dean’s Honoree, Humanities Teaching Award, UCI (2015)
American Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Association of University Women (2008-09)
Appointments
Assistant Professor of German Studies, University of Cincinnati, OH (2003-2005).
Assistant Professor of German, University of California, Irvine (2005-2012).
Assistant Professor of German, University of California, Irvine (2005-2012).
Research Abstract
In my current book project, "Memories of Migration: The European Imaginary in Transcultural German-Language Literature," I analyze a range of prose texts by a number of transcultural writers (among others Terézia Mora, Marica Bodrožic, and Olga Grjasnowa) and show how narrating memories of European migration, arrival, and conflicts can support a model of multidirectional memory that releases cultural memories form national and territorial frameworks. The central argument is that the narratives at hand shape the European memory project (which has been primarily centered on the Shoa) in novel and important ways by transgressing national belonging in favor of transcultural and postnational imaginaries of European experiences in the late 20th and early 21st century.
My first book, "Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Globalization" (2012), offers a critical analysis of the effects that globalization entails for the distribution and production of German-language literature. It first discusses the effects that globalization has had on concepts of authorship and the literary marketplace after unification. Secondly, it analyzes the aesthetic treatment of globalizing factors in selected prose texts from the first millennial decade that thematize travel and work in the globalized economy. By evaluating the forms in which contemporary German writers of a younger generation respond to the pressures that globalizing factors impose on the individual and society, the books questions what these responses mean for identity constructions in the Berlin Republic and the state of German literature in the Aughts.
My first book, "Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Globalization" (2012), offers a critical analysis of the effects that globalization entails for the distribution and production of German-language literature. It first discusses the effects that globalization has had on concepts of authorship and the literary marketplace after unification. Secondly, it analyzes the aesthetic treatment of globalizing factors in selected prose texts from the first millennial decade that thematize travel and work in the globalized economy. By evaluating the forms in which contemporary German writers of a younger generation respond to the pressures that globalizing factors impose on the individual and society, the books questions what these responses mean for identity constructions in the Berlin Republic and the state of German literature in the Aughts.
Publications
BOOKS
Visions of Europe. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Contemporary Cultural Debates. Co-edited with Gail K. Hart (= Berliner Beiträge zur Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte, vol. 18). Berlin: Peter Lang, 2014.
Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Cultural Globalization (= Interdisciplinary German Studies, vol. 12). Berlin/New York: DeGruyter, 2012. Paperback edition 2016.
Visions of Europe. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Contemporary Cultural Debates. Co-edited with Gail K. Hart (= Berliner Beiträge zur Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte, vol. 18). Berlin: Peter Lang, 2014.
Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Cultural Globalization (= Interdisciplinary German Studies, vol. 12). Berlin/New York: DeGruyter, 2012. Paperback edition 2016.
EDITED SPECIAL ISSUES
'Europe' in Contemporary German Literature. Co-edited with Friederike Eigler. Colloquia Germanica 51.3-4 (Fall 2020).
Closing Borders, Bridging Gaps? Deutscher Pop an der Jahrtausendwende. Special issue of Literatur für Leser 31.2 (2008).
'Europe' in Contemporary German Literature. Co-edited with Friederike Eigler. Colloquia Germanica 51.3-4 (Fall 2020).
Closing Borders, Bridging Gaps? Deutscher Pop an der Jahrtausendwende. Special issue of Literatur für Leser 31.2 (2008).
ARTICLES
“Vive la République européenne? Reading The European Balcony Project as Artistic Counter-Public.” The Cultural Deliberation of Europe (special issue, ed. by Jesse van Amelsvoort and Margriet van der Waal). Continuum. Journal of Media and Cultural Studies (exp. 2024)
“Die Welt als Dorf: Neue Heimatromane von Dörte Hansen und Juli Zeh in ecocritical Perspektive.“ Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 114.4 (Winter 2022): 574-597.
“Narrating Memories of War, Migration, and Settlement in Works by Melinda Nadj Abonji and Marica Bodrožic.” Gegenwartsliteratur. Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch / A German Studies Yearbook 20 (2021): 105-125.
“Cosmopolitanism and Hospitality in European Refuge Narratives.” EuropeNow April 2020. https://www.europenowjournal.org/2020/04/27/cosmopolitanism-and-hospitality-in-european-refugee-narratives/
„Fragile Realities: Discussions Among Writers About Contemporary Europe.“ Europe in Contemporary German Literature. Special issue of Colloquia Germanica. 51.3-4 (Fall 2020).
Winner of the 2022 Gisela Brinker-Gabler Outstanding Essay Award, Council of European Studies https://www.jstor.org/stable/26975998
“Sibylle Berg als Feministin: Über die popkulturellen Strategien ihrer journalistischen Texte.“ Sibylle Berg. Text & Kritik. Zeitschrift für Literatur 225 (2020): 51-58.
“Die Poetik-Vorlesungen Juli Zehs und Terézia Moras: Beispiele narrativer und feministischer Ethik.” Gegenwartsliteratur. Ein Germanistisches Jahrbuch / A German Studies Yearbook 16 (2017): 209-231.
“Ghostly Business: Place, Space, and Gender in Christian Petzold’s Yella.” Seminar 47:3 (September 2011): 357-370.
“Pop & Politik: Formen von Engagement in der zeitgenössischen Popliteratur.” [Pop & politics: Forms of commitment in contemporary pop literature]. Literatur für Leser 31.2 (2008): 125-141. Special issue on Pop.
“’Man photographiert Dinge, um sie aus dem Sinn zu verscheuchen’: Zu den Motiven der Photographie und des verstellten Blicks in Kafkas Romanfragment Der Verschollene.” [On the motifs of photography and obstructed gaze in Kafka’s fragmentary novel Amerika] Orbis Litterarum 61:1 (Spring 2006): 16-41.
“Der Erzähler als ‘popmoderner Flaneur’ in Christian Krachts Roman Faserland.” [The narrator as a ‘popmodern flaneur’ in Christian Kracht’s novel Faserland] German Life and Letters 55:2 (April 2002): 164-79.
BOOK CHAPTERS
"Regenerating Europe in Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt.”
Ulrike Draesner: A Companion. Eds. Lyn Marven and Karen Leeder. Companions to Contemporary German Culture. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2023. 17-35.
“Trauma and Travel in Post-1989 Europe.” Anxious Journeys. Contemporary German Travel Narratives. Eds. Karin Baumgartner and Monika Shafi. Boydell & Brewer, 2019. 21-39.
“Cultural Dichotomies and Lived Transnationalism in Recent Russian-German Narratives (Gorelik, Bronsky, Grjasnowa)." Transnationalism in Contemporary German-Language Literature. Eds. Elisabeth Hermann, Carrie Smith-Prei, and Stuart Taberner. Rochester, NY: Camden House 2015. 209-227.
"Jenny Erpenbecks Romane Heimsuchung (2007) und Aller Tage Abend (2012) als europäische Erinnerungsorte.” [Jenny Erpenbeck’s Novels Visitation and The End of Days as European Places of Memory] Wahrheit und Täuschung. Beiträge zum Werk Jenny Erpenbecks. Eds. Friedhelm Marx and Julia Schoell. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2014 (= Poesis. Standpunkte zur Gegenwartsliteratur, vol. 11). 125-144.
"Prekäre neue Arbeitswelt: Narrative der New Economy.” (Precarious New Work World: Narratives of the New Economy). Das erste Jahrzehnt. Narrative und Poetiken des 21. Jahrhunderts. Eds. Johanna Bohley and Julia Schöll. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2011. 69-82.
“Transnational Traumas: Terézia Mora’s Alle Tage.” Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century. Eds. Lyn Marven and Stuart Taberner. Camden House 2011; Paperback August 2013. 46-61. [Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award 2012 for the volume]
“Vive la République européenne? Reading The European Balcony Project as Artistic Counter-Public.” The Cultural Deliberation of Europe (special issue, ed. by Jesse van Amelsvoort and Margriet van der Waal). Continuum. Journal of Media and Cultural Studies (exp. 2024)
“Die Welt als Dorf: Neue Heimatromane von Dörte Hansen und Juli Zeh in ecocritical Perspektive.“ Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 114.4 (Winter 2022): 574-597.
“Narrating Memories of War, Migration, and Settlement in Works by Melinda Nadj Abonji and Marica Bodrožic.” Gegenwartsliteratur. Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch / A German Studies Yearbook 20 (2021): 105-125.
“Cosmopolitanism and Hospitality in European Refuge Narratives.” EuropeNow April 2020. https://www.europenowjournal.org/2020/04/27/cosmopolitanism-and-hospitality-in-european-refugee-narratives/
„Fragile Realities: Discussions Among Writers About Contemporary Europe.“ Europe in Contemporary German Literature. Special issue of Colloquia Germanica. 51.3-4 (Fall 2020).
Winner of the 2022 Gisela Brinker-Gabler Outstanding Essay Award, Council of European Studies https://www.jstor.org/stable/26975998
“Sibylle Berg als Feministin: Über die popkulturellen Strategien ihrer journalistischen Texte.“ Sibylle Berg. Text & Kritik. Zeitschrift für Literatur 225 (2020): 51-58.
“Die Poetik-Vorlesungen Juli Zehs und Terézia Moras: Beispiele narrativer und feministischer Ethik.” Gegenwartsliteratur. Ein Germanistisches Jahrbuch / A German Studies Yearbook 16 (2017): 209-231.
“Ghostly Business: Place, Space, and Gender in Christian Petzold’s Yella.” Seminar 47:3 (September 2011): 357-370.
“Pop & Politik: Formen von Engagement in der zeitgenössischen Popliteratur.” [Pop & politics: Forms of commitment in contemporary pop literature]. Literatur für Leser 31.2 (2008): 125-141. Special issue on Pop.
“’Man photographiert Dinge, um sie aus dem Sinn zu verscheuchen’: Zu den Motiven der Photographie und des verstellten Blicks in Kafkas Romanfragment Der Verschollene.” [On the motifs of photography and obstructed gaze in Kafka’s fragmentary novel Amerika] Orbis Litterarum 61:1 (Spring 2006): 16-41.
“Der Erzähler als ‘popmoderner Flaneur’ in Christian Krachts Roman Faserland.” [The narrator as a ‘popmodern flaneur’ in Christian Kracht’s novel Faserland] German Life and Letters 55:2 (April 2002): 164-79.
BOOK CHAPTERS
"Regenerating Europe in Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt.”
Ulrike Draesner: A Companion. Eds. Lyn Marven and Karen Leeder. Companions to Contemporary German Culture. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2023. 17-35.
“Trauma and Travel in Post-1989 Europe.” Anxious Journeys. Contemporary German Travel Narratives. Eds. Karin Baumgartner and Monika Shafi. Boydell & Brewer, 2019. 21-39.
“Cultural Dichotomies and Lived Transnationalism in Recent Russian-German Narratives (Gorelik, Bronsky, Grjasnowa)." Transnationalism in Contemporary German-Language Literature. Eds. Elisabeth Hermann, Carrie Smith-Prei, and Stuart Taberner. Rochester, NY: Camden House 2015. 209-227.
"Jenny Erpenbecks Romane Heimsuchung (2007) und Aller Tage Abend (2012) als europäische Erinnerungsorte.” [Jenny Erpenbeck’s Novels Visitation and The End of Days as European Places of Memory] Wahrheit und Täuschung. Beiträge zum Werk Jenny Erpenbecks. Eds. Friedhelm Marx and Julia Schoell. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2014 (= Poesis. Standpunkte zur Gegenwartsliteratur, vol. 11). 125-144.
"Prekäre neue Arbeitswelt: Narrative der New Economy.” (Precarious New Work World: Narratives of the New Economy). Das erste Jahrzehnt. Narrative und Poetiken des 21. Jahrhunderts. Eds. Johanna Bohley and Julia Schöll. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2011. 69-82.
“Transnational Traumas: Terézia Mora’s Alle Tage.” Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century. Eds. Lyn Marven and Stuart Taberner. Camden House 2011; Paperback August 2013. 46-61. [Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award 2012 for the volume]
Grants
Faculty Research Fellow, International Center for Writing and Translation, UC Irvine (2006-07);
Faculty Research Grant, University Research Council, University of Cincinnati (2004);
Research Fellowship, Charles Phelps Taft Fund, University of Cincinnati (2004);
Graduate Stipend, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar, Germany (2002);
Humanities Center Dissertation Fellowship, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington (1999-2000);
German and American Academic Council (GAAC) Young Scholars’ Summer Institute, Social Science Research Council New York/Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin (1999-2000);
Peter Suhrkamp Dissertation Grant, Center for Contemporary German Literature,
Washington University in St. Louis, MO
Professional Societies
Modern Language Association
German Studies Association
Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
Women in German
International Association of Germanists
Other Experience
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5289
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5289
Last updated
08/15/2023
08/15/2023