Literatures in English/North American Literature and Culture
Our North American Literature section seeks to do justice to the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States and Canada and invites students to study classical texts such as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter alongside works written by authors from a wide variety of backgrounds: from the Yugoslavian-born poet Charles Simic or the Native American novelist Leslie Marmon Silko to transcultural American writers like Teju Cole and Canadian authors such as Margaret Atwood and Sheila Heti. Texts as diverse Anne Bradstreet’s elegies, Frederick Douglass’s slave narrative or Isabella Bird’s letters are part of our courses. At our department, we pay close attention to the richness and the intricacies of individual literary texts but also ask ourselves how these texts relate to visual culture (e.g. TV, photography, cinema) and how they are embedded in larger social, cultural and economic contexts. We encourage students to develop awareness of the interesting transatlantic connections between North American literature and other Anglophone literatures. Our teaching covers a wide historical range, reaching from Puritanism to Post-Postmodernism, and reflects our staff members’ research interests and activities.
Team
Team
- Name / Titel
- Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rippl
- Funktion
- Full Professor and Chair of Literatures in English / North American Studies, Director, Department of English
- gabriele.rippl@ens.unibe.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 631 83 66
- Name / Titel
- PD Dr. Julia Straub
- Funktion
- Senior Lecturer
- julia.straub@ens.unibe.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 631 84 17
- Name / Titel
- Roman Bischof, MA
- Funktion
- PhD Candidate and Assistant
- roman.bischof@ens.unibe.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 631 83 61
- Name / Titel
- Sabine von Rütte, MA
- Funktion
- PhD Candidate and Assistant
- sabine.vonruette@ens.unibe.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 631 83 61
Adjunct Researchers
- Name / Titel
- Sofie Behluli, MA
- Funktion
- Adjunct Researcher
- sofie.behluli@lincoln.ox.ac.uk
Student Assistants
Michael Boog (michael.boog@ens.unibe.ch)
Camille Gray (camille.gray@ens.unibe.ch)
Jasmin Anita Lal (jasmin.lal@ens.unibe.ch)
Jonathan Sampson Sarfin (jonathan.sarfin@ens.unibe.ch)
Phone: +41 031 631 37 63
Teaching
Our staff members teach both at BA and MA level and are responsible for the supervision of PhD projects. Their teaching is closely connected to their research activities. In our lectures, seminars and workshops we cover a wide range of topics and approaches, genres and media. We stress the importance of theory and methodology and encourage students to become actively involved in research. Where possible, we co-teach with colleagues from other disciplines and invite guest speakers into our seminars and lectures.
Research
The North American literature section has a multi-facetted and strong research profile. Staff members are actively involved in international research networks (see below), participate in conferences in and outside of Switzerland and host research events in Bern. Publication activities include editorial work on a handbook series and Anglia: Journal of English Philology.
Co-operations
- Erasmus link with the American Studies Section at the Johannes Guteberg University of Mainz
- Arbeitsstelle für Theorie der Literatur, Seminar für Deutsche Philologie, University of Göttingen
- DFG-Graduiertenkolleg „Literatur und Literaturvermittlung im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung“, University of Göttingen
- Institut für Popular Culture Studies, University of Zurich
- Arbeitsstelle für Graphische Literatur (ArGL), University of Hamburg
- Project: Comparative Modernisms, Prof. Dr. Laura Marcus, University of Oxford, UK
- DFG Research Group „Ästhetik und Praxis populärer Serialität“, Freie Universität Berlin
Journal, Book and Handbook Series
- ANGLIA journal (co-edited by Gabriele Rippl)
- ANGLIA Book Series (co-edited by Gabriele Rippl)
- De Gruyter Handbook Series (series co-editor: Gariele Rippl)
Various
Swiss Association of North American Studies SANAS
About Us
Prof. Gabriele Rippl has been made a member of the European Expert Database of Outstanding Female Academics (AcademiaNet): http://www.academia-net.org/
Prof. Gabriele Rippl is president of the SNSF research committee of the University of Bern and also serves on several other SNSF committees.
Julia Straub has joined the membership committee of the international Melodrama Research Consortium (Rutgers University).