Prof. Dr. Gerold Sedlmayr

Research Interests

Literature and culture of the Romantic era; cultural and literary theory, incl. Economic Criticism; contemporary British and Irish literature and culture, particularly with a view to race and ethnicity; fantasy; British film and TV.

 

CV

1993-2000: studied English and History at the University of Passau, Germany; first state examination (Lehramt für Gymnasium)

1995/96: academic year at Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland

2000-2004: doctoral studies at the University of Passau; major: English Literary Studies; subsidiary subjects: Philosophy and Medieval/Modern History; dissertation topic: “‘Drawing Breath Somewhere between Stars and Skeletons’. Brendan Kennelly’s Literary Works”

2003-2011: Assistant Professor at the Chair of English Literature and Culture, University of Passau

September 2004: Visiting Professor, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, USA

August / September 2007: Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

October 2008: Guest Lecturer, Institut de Traducteurs, d’Interprètes et de Relations Internationales, Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg, France

February 2010: completion of second-book project (Habilitation): “Discursive Constructions of Madness in Britain, c.1790-c.1815: Medicine, Politics, Literature”

Oct 2010-Feb 2011: parental leave

April 2011-March 2013: Professor of British Cultural Studies at the University of Würzburg, Germany

April 2013-September 2024: Professor of English Literature and Culture at TU University Dortmund, Germany

Since October 2024: Professor of English Literature at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

 

Functions, Awards, Grants

Oct 1995-June 1996: stipend, DAAD (Trinity College Dublin)

2001/2002: dissertation grant (Promotionsstipendium gemäß Gesetz zur Förderung des wissenschaftlichen und künstlerischen Nachwuchses [Bayern])

2004: award for best doctoral dissertation: “E.ON Bayern-Kulturpreis Ostbayern 2004”

Oct 2004-Sept 2007: member, Fachbereichsrat der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Passau (Vertreter der Gruppe der wissenschaftlichen und künstlerischen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter)

Aug 2005-Sept 2007 member, senate of the University of Passau (Vertreter der Gruppe der wissenschaftlichen und künstlerischen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter)

2005-2011: co-ordinator at the University of Passau for the European exchange programme ALE (Applied Languages Europe)

June 2008-Feb 2011: member, Kommission für die Vergabe von Studiengebühren an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Passau

2011: award for best habilitation: “Karl-Heinz-Pollok-Gedächtnispreis 2011 des ManagementConvent der Universität Passau / Neuburger Gesprächskreis e.V.”

September 2011-September 2013: board member, Deutscher Anglistenverband (German Association of University Teachers of English)

Since Feb 2012: member, international advisory board of the journal European Romantic Review

2012: By invitation, organiser and chair of double session at the NASSR conference, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; travel grant by DAAD

2012 co-organiser (with Stefanie Fricke and Rosa Karl) of section “Recent Trends in Romantic Studies” (Anglistentag, University of Potsdam)

2012 organisation (with Nicole Waller and Angela Sedlmaier) of conference “The Politics of Contemporary Fantasy” (5-7 Oct., University of Würzburg); funded by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

June 2014-Sept. 2016: member, Fakultätsrat der Fakultät Kulturwissenschaften der TU Dortmund

Since 2014: co-ordinator ERASMUS programme at the Institute of English and American Studies, TU Dortmund University (UK exchanges)

May 2015-Sept. 2016: Vice Dean of the Fakultät Kulturwissenschaften (Faculty of Culture Studies) at TU Dortmund University

2016 organisation (with Marie Hologa and Florian Cord) of the international conference “Wrestling with the Angels: Exploring Stuart Hall’s Theoretical Legacy” (25-27 Feb., TU Dortmund University)

Oct. 2016-Sept. 2020: Dean of the Faculty of Culture Studies, TU Dortmund University

2017 organisation (with Marie Hologa, Cyprian Piskurek and Mark Schmitt) of the annual conference of the German Association for the Study of British Cultures: “Political Bodies” (23-25 Nov., TU Dortmund University); funded by DFG

Jan. 2021-Oct. 2022: stellvertretender geschäftsführender Direktor (deputy chairman), Institut für Sprache, Literatur und Kultur, TU Dortmund

2022 organisation (with Marie Hologa and Sophia Möllers) of the conference “Romantic Interventions: From Idealism to Activism” (3-5 February); funded by DFG

Oct. 2022-September 2024: co-chairman (Co-Geschäftsführender Direktor) with Ulrike Freywald, Institut für Sprache, Literatur und Kultur, TU Dortmund

 

Publications

Monographs

with Marion Gymnich, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, and Dirk Vanderbeke. The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2018. Info (Reviewed by: Elizabeth Kella, in: Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, 2018, 243-46.)

The Discourse of Madness in Britain, 1790-1815: Medicine, Politics, Literature. Studien zur Englischen Romantik 10, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2011. (Habilitation.) Info (Reviewed by: George Rousseau, in Social History of Medicine, vol. 26, no. 2, 2013, 334-335; Ian Copestake, in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, vol. 250, no. 1, 2013, 221-222; Heike Grundmann, in ZAA: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture, vol. 61. no. 2, 2013, 199-202; Ralf Haekel, in European Romantic Review, vol. 24, no. 1, 2013, 115-120; Michelle E. Iwen, in History of Psychiatry, vol. 23, 2013, 504-506; Beate Rudlof, in Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 19, no. 1, 2012, 96-98.)

Brendan Kennelly’s Literary Works: The Developing Art of an Irish Writer, 1959-2000. Studies in Irish Literature 15, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005. (Dissertation.) Info (Reviewed by: Bernard Escarbelt, in Études Irlandaises, vol. 31, no. 2, 2007, 170.)

 

Edited Volumes and Journal Issues

  • Ed. with Marie Hologa and Sophia Möllers. Cluster Romantic Interventions in vol. 35, no. 2 (2024) of European Romantic Review (ERR), pp. 341-434.
  • Ed. with Cyprian Piskurek. Vol. 25, no. 1 (2018) of Journal for the Study of British Cultures (JSBC): Political Bodies.
  • Ed. with Florian Cord. Vol. 3 (2018) of Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power: issue title: Culture, Power and Identity: The Theoretical Legacy of Stuart Hall, https://coilsoftheserpent.org/category/issue-3-2018/
  • Romantic Bodyscapes: Embodied Selves, Embodied Spaces and Legible Bodies in the Romantic Age (Studien zur Englischen Romantik 17), Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2015.
  • Ed. with Nicole Waller. Politics in Fantasy Media: Essays on Ideology and Gender in Fiction, Film, Television and Games. McFarland, 2014. Print and e-book.
  • Ed. with Stefanie Fricke and Rosa Karl. Special Section on “Recent Trends in Romantic Studies.” In: Anglistentag 2012: Proceedings (Proceedings of the Conference of the German Association of University Teachers of English, vol. 34), ed. Ilse Wischer and Katrin Röder, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2013, 93-179.
  • Ed. with Stephan Karschay and Joanna Rostek. Vol. 84 (2008) of Hard Times: The Politics of British Humour.
  • Ed. with Jürgen Kamm. Insular Mentalities: Mental Maps of Britain: Essays in Honour of Bernd Lenz. Stutz, 2007.

 

German-English Poetry Editions

  • Ed. with Dörte Eliass: Kathleen Jamie. The Sea-House / Das Meer-Haus. Stutz, 2008. (Reviewed by: Katrina Burkert. “Ein Hauch von Weder-Noch.” Passauer Neue Presse, 29 Jan. 2009, 9.)
  • Ed. with Dörte Eliass: Brendan Kennelly. Get This / Kapier das. Stutz, 2004. (Reviewed by: Wolfgang Görtschacher. “Ein vielstimmiges Debüt.” Buchkultur, vol. 100, 2005, p. 32; Bernd Lenz. “Spiel mit Lauten, Assonanzen, freien Rhythmen.” Passauer Neue Presse, 8 Dec. 2004, 16.)

 

As Journal Editor

Co-editor of the Journal for the Study of British Cultures (from vol. 26, 2019). https://jsbc.winter-verlag.de/.

 

As Series Editor

2013-2018 (beginning with vol. 48): co-editor of LIR (Literatur – Imagination – Realität: Anglistische, germanistische, romanistische Studien), Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.

 

Articles

  • (under review) “Writing Home: Ethnic Minorities in Ireland, the Negotiation of Borders, and the Idea of Irish Unity in the Work of the ‘New Irish’ Poets”. Discourses of Unity in Ireland and Europe, ed. Maurice H. Fitzpatrick and Christoph Reinfandt.
  • (forthcoming) “Irische Lyrik nach 1945”. Englische Literaturgeschichte, 6th edition, ed. Hans Ulrich Seeber and Martin Middeke, Metzler.
  • (forthcoming) “William Godwin’s Mandeville, Madness and the Case for/against Moral Management“. The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations: Middle Ages to the Present, ed. Katrin Röder and Cornelia Wächter, Brill.
  • “‘Ein Blick auf jenes Jammerhauß’: Lichtenberg, Bedlam und das Wissen um den Wahnsinn im England des 18. Jahrhunderts”. Lichtenberg-Jahrbuch 2022, ed. Ulrich Joost et al., Heidelberg: Winter, 2023, 125-148.
  • “Editorial: The State of (British) Cultural Studies in Germany Today”. Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 28, no. 1 (2021): 3-11.
  • With Joanna Rostek: “Grayson Perry’s Brexit Vases as National Psychotherapy: Feelings (and) Matter”. Mentalities and Materialities: Essays in Honour of Jürgen Kamm, ed. Philip Jacobi and Anette Pankratz, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2021, 129-148.
  • “Ethnicity, Race and Representation in Britain”. How to Do Cultural Studies: Ideas, Approaches, Scenarios, ed. Jürgen Kramer and Bernd Lenz, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2020, 135-166.
  • “Communication Breakdown: The Brexit Referendum, British Austerity Policies, and Their Negotiation in Culture”. Journal for the Study of British Cultures (JSBC), vol. 26, no. 1 (2019): 31-44.
  • With Cyprian Piskurek. “Introduction: Political Bodies”. Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 25, no. 1 (2018) (issue on Political Bodies): 3-9.
  • With Florian Cord. “Introduction: ‘Wrestling with the Angels”. Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power, vol. 3 (2018): pp. 1-6, https://coilsoftheserpent.org/2018/12/introduction-2/ (URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-322653)
  • “Stuart Hall and Power”. Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power, vol. 3 (2018): pp. 7-26, https://coilsoftheserpent.org/2018/12/stuart-hall-and-power/ (URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-322662).
  • With Marion Gymnich, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz and Dirk Vanderbeke. “Introduction: The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century”. The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century, by Marion Gymnich, G.S., Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, and Dirk Vanderbeke, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2018, 1-13.
  • “Orphans, Myth, and Contemporary Fantasy Literature: Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, A Song of Ice and Fire“. The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century, by Marion Gymnich, G.S., Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, and Dirk Vanderbeke, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2018, 181-241.
  • “The Ambiguous Nature of the Romantic Scientification of Literary Knowledge”. Romantic Ambiguities: Abodes of the Modern (Studien zur Englischen Romantik, vol. 20), edited by Sebastian Domsch, Christoph Reinfandt, and Katharina Rennhak, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2017, 125-138.
  • “Political and Social History, c. 1780-1832”. Handbook of British Romanticism (Handbooks of English and American Studies, vol. 6), edited by Ralf Haekel, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017, 27-48.
  • “Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials (1995-2000)”. Handbook of the English Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries (Handbooks of English and American Studies, vol. 5), edited by Christoph Reinfandt, De Gruyter, 2017, 461-480.
  • “Power, Death and the Value of the Body in Late Capitalism: Anohni’s ‘Drone Bomb Me'”. Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power, vol. 1, 2017, 42-58, coilsoftheserpent.org/2017/06/power-death-and-the-value-of-the-body-in-late-capitalism/ (URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-157449).
  • “Literary Theory in Reverse: The Literariness of Theory”. Theory Matters: The Place of Theory in Literary and Cultural Studies Today, ed. Martin Middeke and Christoph Reinfandt. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, 33-47.
  • “Ownership of the Body, the Sacralization of the Person, and the Right to Bodily Integrity in William Godwin’s Caleb Williams“. European Romantic Review 27.3 (2016): 375-384.
  • “The Uses of History in Blackadder“. British TV Comedy: Cultural Concepts, Contexts and Controversies, ed. Birgit Neumann and Jürgen Kamm, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, 153-166.
  • “Introduction: Romantic Bodyscapes”. Romantic Bodyscapes: Embodied Selves, Embodied Spaces and Legible Bodies in the Romantic Age, ed. Gerold Sedlmayr, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2015, 7-27.
  • “Fantastic Body Politics in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law Trilogy”. Politics in Fantasy Media: Essays on Ideology and Gender in Fiction, Film, Television and Games, ed. Gerold Sedlmayr and Nicole Waller, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014, 165-178.
  • With Nicole Waller. “Introduction: The Politics of Fantasy”. Politics in Fantasy Media: Essays on Ideology and Gender in Fiction, Film, Television and Games, ed. Gerold Sedlmayr and Nicole Waller, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014, 1-16.
  • “The Fatal Contagiousness of French Republicanism: Edmund Burke and the Body Politic”. Perspectives on English Revolutionary Republicanism, ed. Gaby Mahlberg and Dirk Wiemann, Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, 103-118.
  • “The City as ‘Hot-bed for the Passions:’ Romantic Urbanity and the Discourse of Hygiene”. Romantic Cityscapes (Studien zur Englischen Romantik 12), ed. Jens-Martin Gurr and Berit Michel, Trier: WVT, 2013, 101-110.
  • “‘I didn’t graduate / I immigrate:’ West Indian British Poets and the Politics of Ethnicity”. Contemporary Political Poetry in Britain and Ireland (anglistik & englischunterricht 77), ed. Uwe Klawitter and Claus-Ulrich Viol, Heidelberg: Winter, 2013, 181-203. Reprinted with slight amendments as: “West Indian British Poetry: John Agard, James Berry, Fred D’Aguiar, and Grace Nichols”. A History of British Poetry: Genres – Developments – Interpretations (WVT-Handbücher zum literaturwissenschaftlichen Studium 18), ed. Sibylle Baumbach, Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning, Trier: WVT, 2015, 391-407.
  • “‘What They Died For:’ Die Mythopoetik von Lost“. Durch das Labyrinth von Lost: Die US-Fernsehserie aus kultur- und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive (Schriften zur Kultur- und Mediensemiotik 2), ed. Marion Kühn and Verena Schmöller, Marburg: Schüren, 2011, 201-221.
  • “Tom Murphy”. The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights, ed. Martin Middeke and Peter Paul Schnierer. London: Methuen Drama, 2010, 310-327.
  • “‘What Madnesse Ghosts Us All?’ Melancholy Madness in Burton’s Anatomy and Shakespeare’s Hamlet“. Shakespearean Culture – Cultural Shakespeare (PALK 8), ed. Jürgen Kamm and Bernd Lenz, Passau: Stutz, 2009, 27-45.
  • With Joanna Rostek. “Berührung im Überfluss: Grenzregionen und Körperzonen in Ian McEwans On Chesil Beach (2007)”. Grenzen: Konstruktionen und Bedeutungen, ed. Dennis Gräf and Verena Schmöller, Passau: Stutz, 2009, 235-258.
  • “Albion’s Self as Albion’s Other: Reading Blake through Ricoeur”. Romanticism Today: Selected Papers from the Tübingen Conference of the German Society for English Romanticism (Studien zur englischen Romantik 6), ed. Christoph Reinfandt and Lars Eckstein, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2009, 69-79.
  • “‘Yeahbutnobutyeahbut’: The Dismantling of Britishness in Little Britain“. Journal for the Study of British Cultures 15.1 (2008): 11-23.
  • “Sexuality, Monstrosity, and Mythology in Contemporary Irish Women’s Poetry”. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality from Antiquity to Postmodernity (DQR Studies in Literature 42), ed. Glennis Byron and Andrew John Sneddon, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008, 257-273.
  • With Jürgen Kamm. “Introduction”. Insular Mentalities: Mental Maps of Britain: Essays in Honour of Bernd Lenz, ed. Jürgen Kamm and Gerold Sedlmayr, Passau: Stutz, 2007, 7-14.
  • “Insular Insanities: Going Mental in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain”. Insular Mentalities: Mental Maps of Britain: Essays in Honour of Bernd Lenz, ed. Jürgen Kamm and Gerold Sedlmayr, Passau: Stutz, 2007, 39-52.
  • “Negotiating Diasporic Spaces in Contemporary Multi-Ethnic Britain: Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It like Beckham“. Medialised Britain: Essays on Media, Culture and Society (PALK 4), ed. Jürgen Kamm, Passau: Stutz, 2007, 173-184.
  • “Investigating the Relation between Original and Interpretation: Deconstruction and the Ethical Reading of Literature”. Moderne Sprachen: Zeitschrift des Verbandes der österreichischen Neuphilologen (MSp) 50.2 (2006): 75-88.
  • “Between Copacabana and Annaghmakerrig: Paul Durcan’s Global Perspective”. Global Ireland: Irish Literatures for the New Millennium, ed. Ondřej Pilný and Clare Wallace. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2005, 74-85.
  • “‘I Am Ace de Horner, Who’s That?’ Identity in Brendan Kennelly’s Poetry My Arse“. New Voices in Irish Criticism 3, ed. Karen Vandevelde. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002, 173-180.
  • “Brendan Kennelly, Dublin, in Interview with Gerold Sedlmayr, Passau”. Anglistik: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Anglistenverbandes 13.2 (2002): 9-22.
  • “‘The Butcher Walked Straight into Me’: Violence in Brendan Kennelly’s Cromwell“. The Aesthetics and Pragmatics of Violence: Proceedings of the Conference at Passau University, March 15-17, 2001, ed. Michael Hensen and Annette Pankratz, Passau: Stutz, 2001, 103-114.

 

Reviews

  • Review of: Vera Nünning, Philipp Löffler, Margit Peterfy, Key Concepts for the Study of Culture: An Introduction (Trier: WVT, 2020). In: Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 33.3 (2022): 145-147. Web: https://angl.winter-verlag.de/article/ANGL/2022/3/13.
  • Review of: Patrick Diamond, Peter Nedergaard & Ben Rosamond, eds., The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Brexit (London & New York: Routledge, 2018). In: Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 26, no. 1 (2019): 101-103.
  • Review of: James Whitehead. Madness and the Romantic Poet: A Critical History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). In: Review of English Studies, vol. 69, no. 292 (2018): 999-1000.
  • Review of: Theresa M. Kelley. Clandestine Marriage: Botany and Romantic Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). In: ZAA: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture, vol. 63, no. 1 (2015): 131-133.
  • Review of: Roger Lüdeke. Zur Schreibkunst von William Blake: Ästhetische Souveränität und politische Imagination (München: Wilhelm Fink, 2013). In: ZAA: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture, vol. 62, no. 1 (2014): 79-81.
  • Review of: Monika Class. Coleridge and Kantian Ideas in England, 1796-1817: Coleridge’s Responses to German Philosophy (London: Bloomsbury, 2012). In: Anglistik: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Anglistenverbandes, vol. 25, no.1 (2014): 204-206.
  • Review of: Gabriele Linke, ed. Teaching Cultural Studies: Methods – Matters – Models (Heidelberg: Winter, 2011). In: Journal for the Study of British Cultures, vol. 20, no. 1(2013): 79-81.
  • Review of: George C. Grinnell. The Age of Hypochondria: Interpreting Romantic Health and Illness (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). In: Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, vol.  250, no. 1 (2013): 209-211.
  • Review of: Heather R. Beatty. Nervous Disease in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Reality of a Fashionable Disease (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2012). In: Social History of Medicine, vol. 26, no. 1 (2013): 143-144.
  • Review of: Christoph Bode. Selbst-Begründungen: Diskursive Konstruktionen von Identität in der britischen Romantik. Vol. 1: Subjektive Identität (Trier: WVT, 2008). In: AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, vol. 34, no. 2 (2009): 333-336.
  • Review of: Cheryl Alexander Malcolm and Jopi Nyman, eds. eros.usa: Essays on the Culture and Literature of Desire (Gdansk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdanskiego, 2005). In: Moderne Sprachen: Zeitschrift des Verbandes der österreichischen Neuphilologen (MSp), vol. 50, no. 1 (2006): 115-117.
  • Review of: Rosalie Rahal Haddad. Bernard Shaw’s Novels: His Drama of Ideas in Embryo (Trier: WVT, 2004). In: Anglistik: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Anglistenverbandes, vol. 16, no. 2 (2005): 177-179.

 

Miscellaneous

  • “‘Im Inneren des sich wandelnden Ortes’: Bemerkungen zur Lyrik Kathleen Jamies”. Kathleen Jamie. The Sea-House / Das Meer-Haus, ed. Dörte Eliass and Gerold Sedlmayr, Passau: Stutz, 2008, 127-131.
  • “Brendan Kennelly, oder: Die Kunst des Zuhörens”. Brendan Kennelly. Get This / Kapier das, ed. Dörte Eliass and Gerold Sedlmayr, Passau: Stutz, 2004, 129-132.

 

Non-academic

Wir sind hier nur zu Gast: Gedichte. Poesie 21. Deiningen: Steinmeier, 2014.