Prof. Dr. Antje Kley

Prof. Dr. Antje Kley

Department of English and American Studies
Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik, insbesondere Literaturwissenschaft (Prof. Dr. Kley)

Room: Room B7A6
Bismarckstr. 1
91054 Erlangen

Office hours


Mo 4 - 5.30 pm
during the term break; Thu 10 - 12 am on 20.02., 27.02., 13.03., 03.04., 17.04.2025
via Anke Tänzler anke.taenzler@fau.de

Research Interests

  • History and Functions of the US-American novel
  • Literature and Knowlege
  • Autobiographical writing & confessional culture
  • Transculturality and the Multiethnic Literatures of the US and the Anglophone Caribbean
  • Literary and Cultural theory (esp. Ethics and Aesthetics, Media History and Theory, Poststructuralism, Feminist Theory/Gender Studies, Postcolonial Theory)

Current Research Projects

Collaborative Research Projects

Education and Positions

  • Studied at the University of Mannheim (English, American Studies and German Studies), Emory University in Atlanta, GA (Women’s Studies) and the School of Criticism and Theory in Hanover, NH
  • Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation; research assistant in English and American Studies at the University of Bielefeld; Ph.D. at the University of Mannheim 2000
  • Assistant professor at the English Department, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel; Habilitation 2006.
  • Since January 2007 professor for North American Literary and Cultural Studies, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg; since Nov. 2009 chair of American Studies, in particular Literary Studies
  • Visiting scholar at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), spring 2011
  • Fellow of the Princeton University Library (Princeton, NJ), Aug. 2012
  • University Vice President for Teaching and Student Affairs, Equal Opportunities and Teacher Training Oct. 2012 – Mar. 2018
  • “LeseZeit” of the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung for the Poject “Death Becomes Us”, Apr. – Sept. 2020

Services to the Profession

  •  Member of the Foundation Council of the Evaluation Agency Baden-Württemberg (evalag), Apr.2020 – Mar. 2026 http://www.evalag.de/
  • Member of the University Council of the Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg Oct. 2019 – Sept. 2027
  • Member of the University Council of the University of Koblenz-Landau Jan. 2019 – Dec. 2022
  • Reviewer for the Ph.D. programs of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
  • Reviewer for the Ph.D and university stipend programs of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
  • German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA): advisory board member 2008 – 2016
  • Review board member for Amerikastudien/American Studies 2006 – 2014

At Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg

  • Member of the FAU Accreditation Review Committee Oct. 2020 – Sep. 2025
  • Board Member of the Philosophical Faculty and Department of Theology Oct. 2019 – Sep. 2025, Oct. 2007 – Sep. 2009 https://www.phil.fau.de/fakultaet/organe-und-gremien/gremien/#collapse_1
  • Executive Director of the Department for English, American Studies, and Romance Languages Oct. 2019 – Sep. 2021; Executive Director of the Institute for English and American Studies, Oct. 2009 – Mar. 2011
  • Mentor, AriadnePhil Mentoring Program Mar. 2012 – Mai 2016 and since Oct. 2019
  • Executive Director of the Center for Applied Philosophy of Science and Key Qualification  Jul. 2012 – Jul. 2022, member since Oct. 2009
  • Member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender, Diversity and Difference
  • University Vice President for Teaching and Student Affairs, Equal Opportunities and Teacher Training Oct. 2012 – Mar. 2018
  • Member of the Commission for Internationalization 2007 – 2012
  • Member of the task force ‘institutional strategy’ (initiative for excellence) of the university board Dec. 2008 – Sept. 2010
  • Coordinator of the 3rd night of science in the metropolitan area Erlangen/Nuremberg/Fürth for the philosophical faculties (Feb. 2007 – Jan. 2008, in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Phillip Balsiger)

Publications

2009

2001

1997

2018

2015

2012

2011

2009

2022

2018

2017

2012

2007

2004

2023

2021

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

  • Kley, Antje. "Robinson Crusoe." Metzler Lexikon Moderner Mythen. Figuren, Konzepte, Ereignisse. Hrg. Stephanie Wodianka, Juliane Ebert, Stuttgart: Metzler, 2014. 323–25.
    BibTeX: Download

2013

2012

  • Kley, Antje, and Jan D Kucharzewski. "Introduction." Ideas of Order: Narrative Patterns in the Novels of Richard Powers. Ed. Kley, Antje und Kucharzewski, Jan, Heidelberg: Winter, 2012. 9–20.
    BibTeX: Download

2011

2009

2008

2005

2002

2001

2000

1999

Reviews

  • “Philip R. Yannella. American Literature in Context from 1865 to 1929. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.” Review 19, 6. Okt. 2011. 20. Okt. 2011.
  • “Jeffrey Folks. From Richard Wright to Toni Morrison: Ethics in Modern and Postmodern American Narrative. New York: Lang, 2001.” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture 52.1 (2004): 95–6.
  • “Heike Paul. Mapping Migration: Women’s Writing and the American Immigrant Experience from the 1950s to the 1990s. Heidelberg: Winter, 1999.” Amerikastudien/American Studies 48.2 (2003): 265–66.
  • “Stefan Horlacher: Visualität und Visualitätskritik im Werk von John Fowles. Tübingen: Narr, 1998.” Medienwissenschaft: Rezensionen, Reviews 4 (2002): 464–66.
  • “Vera and Ansgar Nünning. Grundkurs anglistisch-amerikanistische Literaturwissenschaft. Stuttgart: Klett, 2001.” LWU 35.2 (2002): 176–77.
  • “Roy Sommer. Fictions of Migration: Ein Beitrag zur Theorie und Gattungstypologie des zeitgenössischen interkulturellen Romans in Großbritannien. Trier: WVT, 2001.” LWU 35.2 (2002): 190–91.
  • “John Pier, ed. Recent Trends in Narratological Research: Papers from the Narratology Round Table ESSE4-September 1997-Debrecen, Hungary and other contributions. GRAAT, 21. Tours: Université de Tours, 1999.” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture 49.3 (2001): 289–91.
  • “Robert Cook. Sweet Land of Liberty: The African-American Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century. London: Longman, 1998.” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture 48.2 (2000): 188–89.

Workshops, Conferences, and Lecture Series

  •  Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA) on “Rural America” (with Heike Paul). May 30, – June 2, 2013
  • Panel moderation, Spiel und Ernst: Formen – Poetiken – Zuschreibungen für Erika Greber (section VII), FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Oct. 12 – 14, 2012
  • International Conference “‘Ideas of Order’: Narrative Patterns in the Novels of Richard Powers”, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nov. 26 – 28, 2010 (with Jan Kucharzewski, University of Hamburg)
  • Panel Moderation, “Pragmatism and Scientific Theories”, International Conference “Revisioning Pragmatism: William James in the New Millennium”, University of Hamburg, Jun. 24 – 26, 2010
  • Panel Moderation, “Determinierung der Geschlechtsidentität: biologische Programmierung oder soziale Konstruktion?”, Symposium “Let’s Talk About Sex – Geschlechtlichkeit, Geschlechtsidentität und Geschlechterdifferenz”, Faculties of Medicine and Philosophy/FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Oct. 24, 2009 (with Helmuth-Günther Dörr)
  • International and interdisciplinary Annual Conference of the Bavarian American Academy “Visual Cultures – Transatlantic Perspectives”, BAA München, Jul. 2 – 4, 2009 (with Christof Decker, Volker Depkat, Karsten Fitz, Barbara Hahn, Petra Dorsch-Jungsberger, Meike Zwingenberger) and Panel “Gender and Sexuality in Post/Modern Image Culture”
  • Panel Moderation, “Pirates”, International Conference “Imagining Alternative Mobilities: Pirates, Drifters, Fugitives in the U.S. and Beyond”, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Jun. 18 – 20, 2009
  • International and interdisciplinary Conference of the Erlangen Graduate College 706 “Das Andere der Trans/Differenz”, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nov. 6 – 8, 2008 (with Cristian Alvarado and Philip Erchinger)
  • Workshop “The Mediality of American Literature”, 53. Annual conferece of the German Association of American Studies, Göttingen, Jun. 8 – 11, 2006 (with Peter Schneck)
  • Section “British/American Studies and Media Studies”, Anglistentag Bamberg, Sep. 18 – 21, 2005 (with Angela Krewani)
  • Lecture Series “Grenzüberschreibungen: Feminismus und Cultural Studies”, University of Bielefeld, Summer 1999 and Winter 1999/2000 (with Sabine Kyora and Dagmar Buchwald)

Papers, Lectures, Panel Contributions

  • „Die Politik der Toten in William Faulkners Roman As I Lay Dying (1930)“, (Ringvorlesung Lernen aus Leichenteilen, Medizinische Fakultät der FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 3. Juli 2024)
  • “Let’s Talk about Death: Literature and Public Negotiations of the End of Life”, )American Studies Research Colloquium, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, June 4, 2024)
  • „Literarische Narrative des Lebensendes: Relevanz und Funktion in US-amerikanischen Öffentlichkeiten“, (Ringvorlesung des GRK 2806 „Literatur und Öffentlichkeit in differenten Gegenwartskulturen“, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 23. November, 2023)
  • “Knowledge in the Face of Death: Contemporary Literary Narratives of the End of Life in the US” (The Failure of Knowledge – Knowledges of Failure: An International Conference, Universität Mannheim, 04-06.05.2023);
  • “Literary Epistemologies of Death in the 21st Century” (SLSAeu 2023: Models, Metaphors and Simulations. Epistemic Transformation in Literature, Science and the Arts, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 18-21.05.2023);
  • “Narrative des Lebensendes: Gesellschaftliche Funktionen der Literatur” (FAU Scientia Gaststudium, 21.06.2023);
  • “Literarische Narrative des Lebensendes: Relevanz und Funktion in US-amerikanischen Öffentlichkeiten” (Ringvorlesung des GRK 2806 “Literatur und Öffentlichkeiten,” FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 15.11.2023
  • „Trauer – Literatur – Tod“, Universität Bamberg, Reihe Trauer schreiben in Kooperation mit dem Bamberger Hospizverein, 17. Januar 2023
  • “Public Interventions: The Literary Ethics of Claudia Rankine’s Work, or ‘the complicated mess of a true conversation,’” American Studies Research Colloquium, Universität Bochum, December 6, 2022
  • “Death Becomes Us: Contemporary US-American Narratives of the End of Life,” International Conference: Crossing Boundaries: Rethinking the Humanities Across Disciplines, December 2-3, 2022, Department of English and American Studies, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” online
  • “Disruptions in Place and Time in Contemporary US-American Narratives of the End of Life”, Here, There and Somewhere in Between: Placing, Practicing, Configuring, International Midterm Conference, RTG “Practicing Place”, Universität Eichstätt, November 11, 2022
  • “Literary Public Interventions: Claudia Rankine’s Poetics”, Universität Mannheim, October 8, 2022
  • „Vulnerabilität, Macht und Übersetzung in Katie Kitamuras Roman Intimitäten (2021)“, Ethik – Text – Kultur: Eine Ringvorlesung des Masterstudiengangs Ethik der Textkulturen, Universität Augsburg, July 28, 2022
  • „Death Becomes Us: Narrative des Lebensendes in der US-amerikanischen Gegenwartsliteratur“, Forschungstag der Philosophischen Fakultät und FB Theologie, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, July 21, 2022
  • „Narrative des Lebensendes: Zeitdiagnosen in der US-amerikanischen Gegenwartsliteratur“, Die drei Kulturenreconsidered: Interdisziplinäre Tagung zur Literatursoziologie, Universität Bielefeld, May 5, 2022, online
  • “Vulnerability and the Fear of Death in Don DeLillo’s Novel Zero K (2016),” American Studies Research Colloquium, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Oct. 19, 2021, online
  • “The End of Vulnerability? The Technological Deferral of Death in Don DeLillo’s Novel Zero K (2016),” American Studies Research Colloquium, LMU München, Jul. 15, 2021, online
  • “Literary and Medical Knowledge Production around Death: Being Mortal in Paul Kalanithi’s Autopathography When Breath Becomes Air (2016),” Exploring Trans/Regionality: The Workings of Infrastructures and the Production of Knowledge, Second Workshop of the Knowledge Infrastructures Network, Center for International and Transnational Area Studies, Universität Regensburg, Jul.1–2, 2021, online
  • “Knowledge, Fiction, and the (Technological) Deferral of Death: Reading Don DeLillo’s Novel Zero K (2016),” Death, Dying, Technology and Human Mortality, Annual Conference of the Center for Death and Society, University of Bath, Jun. 7–15, 2021, online
  • „Politik und Poetik des vergänglichen Körpers in der US-amerikanischen Gegenwartsliteratur,“ Interdisziplinärer Workshop Body Politics. Intersektionale Forschungsperspektiven auf den Körper, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Feb. 17 – 19, 2021, online
  • “George Saunders, Lincoln im Bardo,”  Große Werke der Literatur – Vortragsreihe der Stadtbibliothek Augsburg, Oct. 21,  2020, online
  • “Tod – Körper – Geschlecht: Literarische Freiheit und Moralische Verantwortung in aktuellen US-amerikanischen Krankheitsmemoiren,” Keynote, 9. Öffentlicher Workshop des Arbeitskreises Biographie und Geschlecht, “Auto/Biographie und Geschlecht: Fake und Fiktion,” Universität Bayreuth, Oct. 1 – 2, 2020, online
  • “Being Mortal: Literary and Medical Infrastructures of Knowledge  Production around Death,” kick-off meeting of the Knowledge Infrastructures Network at the University of Regensburg, Aug. 24, 2020, online
  • “Reading Death in Contemporary US-American Narrative: Julia Alvarez’ Afterlife (2020) and George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo (2017),” American Studies Research Colloquium, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, July 28, 2020, online
  • “Tod und Trauer in der Gegenwart: eine literarische Spurensuche,” Soziologisches Hauptseminar unter Leitung von Prof. Aida Bosch “Affektivität, Ästhetik und Sozialität,” FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, June 4, 2020
  • Respondent, Medical Humanities Workshop “Processing Threat: Constructing and Negotiating Vulnerability and Agency”, SFB 923 Bedrohte Ordnungen an der Universität Tübingen, Oct. 29, 2018
  • Panel participation, Ohne Leitbilder? Zum Nutzen und Nachteil der Tradition für das Leben, Kooperation der FAU und der Brown University, Workshop des MA Elitestudiengangs Ethik der Textkulturen, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, July 20 – 21, 2018
  • “Public Humanities and Literary Knowledge: Four Theses on How Reading Matters”, Panel 8: American Studies as Engaged Scholarship: Doing Public Humanities from the Local to the Transnational, American Counter/Publics, Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies, FU Berlin, May 24 – 27, 2018.
  • mit Dorothee Brovelli, “Interdisziplinäre Sichtweisen auf die Verschränkung von Fachwissenschaft, Fachdidaktik und Bildungswissenschaft in Lehrerbildungscurricula”, Zwischen Aufwind und Aufwand: Positionen, Kontroversen und Ziele der Lehrerbildung, Summer School der Heidelberg School of Education, Jul 10 -14, 2017.
  • “US Print Culture, Literary Narrative, and Slow Reading in the Age of Big Data: Steve Tomasula’s VAS: An Opera in Flatland.” Internationales Symposium Medium, Object, Metaphor: The Printed Book in Contemporary American Culture, Universität Konstanz, November 5 – 7, 2015.
  • “Wissenschaftskommunikation und literarisches Erzählen,” ELINAS Lecture Series Narrating Science: Wissenschaft Erzählen, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, June 22, 2015.
  • “Literary Knowledge Production and the Natural Sciences in the US,” Knowledge Landscapes North America, Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies, University of Bonn, May 31, 2015.
  • “This World is Not Conclusion‘: What does Literature Know?“ Amerikanistisches Forschungskolloquium, University of Mannheim, April 25, 2015.
  • mit Karin Höpker, “Unruly Creatures, Obstinate Things – Bio-Objects and Scientific Knowledge Production in Contemporary Science Novels,” Fiction Meets Science: The World of Science under the Literary Microscope, Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg, Delmenhorst, November 20, 2014.
  • “Response to Panel VI: Gendering TV Between Private and Public,” Television in Europe beyond the Iron Curtain – National and Transnational Perspectives since the 1950s, History and Media Studies Conference at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Dec. 7, 2013.
  • with Karin Höpker. “Literatur und Wissen: Life Science und The Pursuit of Happiness in Richard Powers: Das Größere Glück“. Summer Academy of the German National Merit Foundation, La Colle sur Loup, France, Sept. 24, 2013.
  • with Karin Höpker. “Literatur und Wissen: Life Science und The Pursuit of Happiness in Richard Powers: Das Größere Glück“. Lecture series: Quarks and Letters: Naturwissenschaften in Literatur und Kultur der Gegenwart, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Jan. 7, 2013.
  • “Kulturkontakte lesen – Lesen als Kulturkontakt,” Graduate School Kulturkontakt und Wissenschaftsdiskurs, Rostock University, Jan. 25, 2012.
  • “Narrative der Anerkennung in der US-amerikanischen Erzählliteratur der Gegenwart”, Forschungskolloquium der Abteilung Literatur und Kultur am Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien, FU Berlin, Apr. 22, 2010.
  • “Zur Ethik medialer Repräsentation: Richard Powers’ Roman Plowing the Dark (2000),” Ethik des Erzählens in der Gegenwartsliteratur, conference of the chair for New German Literary History at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Oct. 3 – 5, 2008.
  • “Ethics – Media – Representation: Aesthetic Experience and Identity Formation in Richard Powers’ Novel Plowing the Dark (2000).” Keynote. 8th international graduate conference of the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nov. 23 – 25, 2007.
  • “Stranger than Paradise: Novelists, Immigrants, and Other Strangers: on Gary Steyngart’s Absurdistan.” USA: Amerikanische Autoren & Europäische Leser, House of Literature Basel, Jan. 27, 2007.
  • “Print Culture, Contingency and the Discourse of Femininity in 18th Century England,” Anglistentag, Aachen, Sep. 26 – 29, 2004.
  • “Media History and the Beginnings of the Novel in 18th Century England and America,” Cultures. Literatures. Histories. The Bremen Lectures, Jul. 7, 2004.
  • “John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer,” Lecture series: Novels of the 20th century, University of Kiel, Nov. 25, 2003.
  • “Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe,” Lecture series: Novels of the 20th century, University of Kiel, Nov. 26, 2002.
  • “Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary American Autobiography,” W.E.B DuBois Lectures at the Humboldt University Berlin, Jun. 11, 2002.
  • “Ethics of media representation in the English and the American Novel,” Postgraduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies, LMU Munich, Nov. 9, 2001.
  • “keeping pace with the visual revolution: Two Versions of Cubist Writing in the Anglo-American Modernism of Gertrude Stein and Wyndham Lewis,” 48th Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies, Bremen, Jun. 5 – 8, 2001.
  • “Zwischen Relativismus und Universalismus: Das “erlesene” Selbst im zeitgenössischen autobiographischen Schreiben in den USA,” Postgraduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies, University of Regensburg, Nov. 12 – 14, 1999.
  • “A post-Stonewall Account of a pre-Stonewall Life: Samuel Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water,” 46th Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies, University of Cologne, May 25 – 28, 1999.
  • “Doubling Strategies and the Rhetorics of Sexuality in Samuel Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water,” 3rd international conference of the Collegium for African American Research, University of Münster, Mar. 18 – 21, 1999.
  • “I would have been an outlaw knotmaker: Gender, Genre und Ethnische Identität in Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior,” series of lectures on the topic Grenzüberschreibungen: Feminismus und Cultural Studies, Bielefeld University, Jan. 18, 1999.
  • “I would have been an outlaw knotmaker: Genre and Ethnicity in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior,” Postgraduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies, University of Münster, Nov. 13 – 15, 1998.
  • “There is no place/ that cannot be home/ nor is: Constructions of ‘home’ in Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of my Name,” MELUS Europe Founding Conference, Heidelberg University, Jun. 25 – 28, 1998.
  • “Doubling Strategies in Samuel Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water,” Postgraduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 1997.
  • “Fanny Lewalds Meine Lebensgeschichte: Zwischen bürgerlicher Anpassung und emanzipatorischem Aufbruch,” 3rd Colloquium Genderstudies/Frauenforschung, University of Mannheim, Jan. 27, 1995.
  • “A River Called Treason to Rely On: Identitätskonstitution in Toni Morrisons Jazz,” 2nd Colloquium Genderstudies/Frauenforschung, University of Mannheim, Jan. 28, 1994.