Prof. Dr. Marion Gymnich

BCDSS Co-Speaker and Principal Investigator

Department of English, American and Celtic Studies
Rabinstraße 8
D-53111 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 73 7624
mgymnich@uni-bonn.de

Academic Profile

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), 16 (co-)edited volumes, more than 100 articles, more than 30 contributions to lexica and encyclopedias, more than 20 reviews; numerous national and international lectures and papers; 8 completed doctorates as first supervisor; 18 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

since 2013
Member of the University's Council, University of Bonn, Germany

since 2007
Professor for English Literature and Culture, University of Bonn, Germany

2008–2013
Dean of Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Bonn, Germany

2007
Visiting Professor, University of Graz, Austria

2006–2007
Substitute Professor for 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

2016–2020
Member of the interdisciplinary research project “Phraseorom – Phraseology of the novel”, funded jointly 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” (V&R Unipress/Brill), “Narratio Aliena?” (EB-Verlag), “Reality and Hermeneutics. Bonn Studies in the New Humanities” (Mohr Siebeck)

Third-Party Funding

German Research Foundation (DFG)/Agence Nationale de la Recherche: collaborative interdisciplinary research project "Phraseorom"

Selected Publications

2021. "Two Representations of Homelessness on British Television – Cathy Come Home and Call the Midwife." In Representing Poverty in the Anglophone Postcolonial World, edited by Verena Jain-Warden and Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp, 245–260. Göttingen.
2018. With Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, Gerold Sedlmayr, and Dirk Vanderbeke. The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2018. "'We are the people of the Apokalis': Narrative Voice and the Negotiation of Power Structures in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People." In Narratology and Ideology: Negotiating Context, Form, and Theory in Postcolonial Narratives, edited by Divya Dwivedi, Henrik Skov Nielsen and Richard Walsh, 141–155. Columbus, OH.
2017. "Erzählen und Gender." In Erzählen: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch, edited by Matías Martínez, 326–334. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
2013. "Gender and Narratology." Literature Compass 10(9): 705–715.
2011. "Restoration Comedies. William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, Aphra Behn’s The Rover, and William Congreve’s The Way of the World." In A History of British Drama. Genres – Developments – Model Interpretations, edited by Sibylle Baumbach, Birgit Neumann, and Ansgar Nünning, 113–127. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
2011. "'Decolonizing Genre'? – Das Konzept der literarischen Gattung in englischsprachiger postkolonialer und interkultureller Literatur." In Was sind Genres? Nicht-abendländische Kategorisierungen von Gattungen, edited by Stephan Conermann and Amr ElHawary, 299–315. Berlin.
2010. "The Gender(ing) of Fictional Characters." In Characters in Fictional Worlds. Understanding Imaginary Beings in Literature, Film, and Other Media, edited by Jens Eder, Fotis Jannidis, and Ralf Schneider, 506–524. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
2008. "Voyages Out – Voyages In: Travelling and Individual Development in Novels by Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers." In Points of Arrival. Travels in Time, Space and the Self, edited by Marion Gymnich, Ansgar Nünning, Vera Nünning, and Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre, 221–237. Tübingen: Francke Verlag.
2007. Charlotte Brontë: "Jane Eyre" – Emily Brontë: "Wuthering Heights". Uni-Wissen: Anglistik, Amerikanistik. Stuttgart: Klett.
2004. "Konzepte literarischer Figuren und Figurencharakterisierung." [Concepts of Literary Characters and Characterization] In Erzähltextanalyse und Gender Studies [Narratological Analysis and Gender Studies], edited by Vera Nünning and Ansgar Nünning, 122–142. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
2003. "'A shock, of which I feel the reverberation to this day': Memory and Identity in Charlotte Brontë’s Fictional Autobiography Jane Eyre." In Literatur – Erinnerung – Identität. Theoriekonzeptionen und Fallstudien, edited by Astrid Erll, Marion Gymnich, and Ansgar Nünning, 125–141. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
1996. "Das englische Drama der Restaurationszeit aus gattungstypologischer Sicht. Erscheinungsformen und Entwicklungstendenzen." In Eine andere Geschichte der englischen Literatur. Epochen, Gattungen und Teilgebiete im Überblick, edited by Ansgar Nünning, 43–60. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.