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Prof. Dr. Marion Gymnich

Principal Investigator

Maroin Gymnich

University of Bonn
Department of English, American and Celtic Studies
Regina-Pacis-Weg 5
D-53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 / (0)228 / 73 7624
mgymnich[at]uni-bonn.de

 

 

Current Position

Professor of English Literature and Culture

Research

In her research project on representations of domestic service, Marion Gymnich explores changes and continuities in a wide range of literary and non-fictional depictions and negotiations of asymmetrical dependencies that shaped the lives of domestic servants in Britain from the Restoration period to the end of the nineteenth century. The juxtaposition of fictional representations of domestic service that were targeted at a middle-class and/or upper-class readership (in plays, poems and novels), ‘lowbrow’ texts (such as street ballads) and non-fictional texts (e.g., diaries, letters, advertisements, and testimonies by employers and servants), promises to shed new light on social stereotypes and recurring narratives that informed dominant discourses on relations between employers and (domestic) servants. More often than not, the stereotypes and narratives (with their implicit assumptions about ‘normal’ life trajectories) sought to legitimize and perpetuate patterns of asymmetrical dependency, although traces of resistance and subversive (literary) performances can also be found. Gender, age, social mobility, changing notions of ‘family’, ‘home’ and human development as well as numerous literary strategies of voicing and silencing are among the key concepts drawn upon in this project.

6 books (3 of these co-authored), 14 (co-)edited volumes, 92 articles, more than 30 contributions to lexica and encyclopedias, more than 20 reviews; numerous national and international lectures and papers; 4 completed doctorates as first supervisor; 14 completed doctorates as second supervisor; 1 completed Habilitation as co-mentor (University of Heidelberg).

Education

  • 1999–2006             Postdoctoral studies at the University of Cologne and the University of Giessen, Germany;
                                   ‘Habilitation’ in English Studies at the University of Giessen (Germany), Venia legendi in English Studies
  • 1994–1999             Ph.D. studies in English Literature, University of Cologne, Germany
  • 1987–1994             M.A. Studies in English and American Studies, German Studies and Slavic Studies, University of Cologne,
                                   Germany

Academic Positions

  • 2013–present          Member of the University Council, University of Bonn, Germany
  • 2008–2013              Dean of Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Bonn, Germany
  • 2007–present          Professor of English Literature and Culture, University of Bonn, Germany
  • 2007                        Visiting Professor, University of Graz, Austria
  • 2006–2007              Substitute Professor of English and American Studies, University of Giessen, Germany
  • 2004                        Guest lecturer, University of Łodž (Poland)
  • 2002–2006              Coordinator of the International and Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Literary and Cultural Studies at
                                    the University of Giessen, Germany
  • 1994–2002              Research Associate, English Department, University of Cologne, Germany

Awards

  • 2011/2013               Teaching Award, University of Bonn, Germany

Participation in Centers and Collaborative Projects

  • 2016–present          Member of the interdisciplinary research project “Phraseorom – Phraseology of the novel”, funded by the
                                    German Research Foundation and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche
  • 2002–2007              Member of the Giessen Graduate Centre
  • 2002–2006              Coordinator of the International and Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Literary and Cultural Studies at
                                    the University of Giessen, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service

Additional academic activities

  • Co-editor of the series "Representations & Reflections: Studies in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures"

    • Third-Party Funding

    • German Research Foundation/Agence Nationale de la Recherche: collaborative interdisciplinary research project “Phraseorom”

    Selected Publications

    • With Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, Gerold Sedlmayr, Dirk Vanderbeke: Orphans in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century. Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2018.
    • Erzählen und Gender. [Narration and Gender]. In: Matías Martínez (ed.): Erzählen: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. [Narration – An Interdisciplinary Handbook]. Stuttgart 2017, 326-334.
    • Gender and Narratology In: Literature Compass 10/9 (2013), 705-715.
    • Restoration Comedies: William Wycherley's The Country Wife, Aphra Behn's The Rover, and William Congreve's The Way of the World. In: Sibylle Baumbach, Birgit Neumann, Ansgar Nünning (eds.): A History of British Drama: Genres – Developments – Model Interpretations, Trier 2011, 113-127.
    • The Gender(ing) of Fictional Characters. In: Jens Eder, Fotis Jannidis, Ralf Schneider (eds.): Characters in Fictional Worlds: Understanding Imaginary Beings in Literature, Film, and Other Media. Berlin/New York 2010, 506-524.
    • Voyages Out – Voyages. In: Travelling and Individual Development in Novels by Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers. In: Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning, Vera Nünning, Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre (eds.): Points of Arrival: Travels in Time, Space and the Self. Tübingen 2008, 221-237.
    • Charlotte Brontë: "Jane Eyre"; Emily Brontë: "Wuthering Heights". Stuttgart/Weimar 2007.
    • Konzepte literarischer Figuren und Figurencharakterisierung. [Concepts of Literary Characters and Characterization]. In: Vera Nünning, Ansgar Nünning (eds.): Erzähltextanalyse und Gender Studies. [Narratological Analysis and Gender Studies]. Stuttgart/Weimar 2004, 122-142.
    • 'A shock, of which I feel the reverberation to this day': Memory and Identity in Charlotte Brontë's Fictional Autobiography Jane Eyre. In: Astrid Erll, Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning (eds.): Literatur – Erinnerung – Identität: Theoriekonzeptionen und Fallstudien. [Literature – Memory – Identity: Theoretical Concepts and Case Studies]. Trier 2003, 125-141 (with Andrea Lazarescu).
    • Das englische Drama der Restaurationszeit aus gattungstypologischer Sicht: Erscheinungsformen und Entwicklungstendenzen. [The English Drama in the Restoration Period from the Point of View of Genre Typology: Types and Developments]. In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Eine andere Geschichte der englischen Literatur: Epochen, Gattungen und Teilgebiete im Überblick [A Different History of English Literature: Periods, Genres and Areas – an overview]. Trier 1996, 43-60.
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