Transcultural Spaces of Memory -

Nuyorican, Dominicanyork and Haitian American Literature

A young generation of authors, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic or Haiti, has emerged in the United States of America. The authors, however, grew up in the United States, which explains why English is their preferred language to express themselves. To a large extent, their literature covers autobiographical topics of partly beneficial as well as conflict-bearing transcultural experiences. "Transculturation" or "transculturality" shall be used to denote merging cultures and their products. My basic research hypothesis examined in this project is that these prose texts, produced by the second generation of immigrants from the Spanish (and French) speaking Caribbean, create collective realms of memory, which serve as "spaces in between", i.e. linking the current centre of life, the United States, with the respective country of origin. This observation raises a number of questions. My project is an attempt to answer some of these questions such as: What are the aesthetic means employed to create these transcultural realms of memory? What are the national, cultural and ethnical components these realms are comprised of? How can transcultural literature be classified as US or respectively Caribbean literature?

Contact

Dr. Anne Brüske
Universität Heidelberg
Transcultural Studies
Marstallstraße 6
69117 Heidelberg
Tel. (0049) 6221 54-78 69
Fax: (0049) 6221 54-78 62
 

anne.brueske@uni-heidelberg.de
 

 Office Hours

• Wednesdays,  12.00 - 13.00

Current affairs [archive]:

• Course: 
  „Ay, si mi patria tuviera su propia bandera“ – Kultureller Widerstand und Literatur in Puerto Rico

CV

February - March 2013
Research stay at Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dominican Studies Institute, New York and Center for Puerto Rican Studies, New York.

February 2012
Research stay at Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Since Winter Semester 2010/11
Junior Research Group Leader From the Caribbean to North America and Back. Transcultural Processes in Literature, Popular Culture and the New Media

Since 2008
Research associate at the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Heidelberg University

2008
PhD at Heidelberg University with “Das weibliche Subjekt in der Krise. Anthropologische Semantik” (The Crisis of the Female Subject. Anthropological Semantics), a thesis combining literary studies, gender history and sociology

2007-2008
Visiting researcher in the post-graduate program Gender in Motion at the Center for Gender Studies at Basel University (Switzerland)

2006
Research grant (German Exchange Office) at the Institut National de la Recherche Pédagogique in Lyon

2004-2006
Lecturer for German at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines in Lyon

1998-2004
Postgraduate degree (Magister Artium) in Romance studies (French and Spanish literature) and sociology at Heidelberg and Montpellier University

Research interests

• Interdisciplinary literature and cultural studies with a focus on sociology, gender studies, historical anthropology, studies of memory
   
• Research interests in terms of regions and literary epochs: Countries influenced by the Romance languages, especially the Caribbean, USA in the 20th and 21st century and France in the 18th and 20th century
   
• Special interest genres: Epistolary novels, autobiographical texts, translation of theatrical and literary texts, changes in literature and society, transculturalism. Historical development of gender studies in Romance language and literature

Conferences

09/2012           Organization of the international conference „Caribbean Food Cultures“ IWH Heidelberg

04/2012           Organization of the international conference “Wid me riddim, wid me rime. South Asian and Caribbean Diaspora Poetry, Lyrics and Performance”; IWH Heidelberg

09/2011           Organization of the section "Transkultureller Dialog in den neuen Romania. Migrationsliteraturen in Montréal und New York" beim XXXII. Romanistentag (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 25. to 28. September 2011)

06/2011           Workshop “Fremde Blicke auf den Amazonas”, in cooperation with PD Dr. Claudia Brosseder (University of Heidelberg)

05-07/2011     Organization of the lecture and film series “Transmigration in the Americas”, in cooperation with the Department of Romance literatures and languages Heidelberg, the German American Institute (DAI) and Medienforum e.V. in Heidelberg.

Publications

Monographie

1. Das weibliche Subjekt in der Krise. Anthropologische Semantik in Laclos’ Liaisons dangereuses, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2010. [Dissertation]

Herausgeberschaften

2. Szenen von Widerspenstigkeit. Geschlecht zwischen Affirmation, Subversion und Verweigerung., Frankfurt / Main: Campus 2011. [in Kooperation mit Miko Iso, Aglaia Wespe, Kahtrin Zehnder, Andrea Zimmermann]
3. Dialogues transculturels dans la nouvelle Romania / Diálogos transculturales en la nueva romania, Tübingen: Narr 2013. [in Kooperation mit Herle-Christin Jessen]
Im Druck:
4. Caribbean Food Cultures: Culinary Practices and Consumption in the Caribbean and Its Diasporas, Bielefeld: Transcript 2014. [in Kooperation mit Wiebke Beushausen, Ana-Sofia Commichau, Patrick Helber, Sinah Kloß]

Aufsätze

5. »Weibliche Subjektivität in den Liaisons Dangereuses. Das Zusammenspiel von Anthropologie und Gesellschaftsstruktur beim Scheitern der weiblichen Figuren«, Judith Klinger / Susanne Thiemann (Hgg.): Geschlechtervariationen. Gender-Konzepte im Übergang zur Neuzeit. , Potsdam: Universitätsverlag 2006, 275-298.
6. »Fiktionale Selbstentwürfe, Fremdentwürfe und Normativität der Frau in den Liaisons dangereuses«, Dagmar Schmelzer / Marina O. Hertrampf (Hgg.): Handeln und Verhandeln. Forum Junge Romanistik, Bonn: Romanistischer Verlag 2007, 313-333.
7. »Gender, Sex & Co. in der jungen Romanistik – Vorhang auf für neue, ‚ex-zentrische’ Forschungsperspektiven«, Lidia Becker / Alex Demeulenaere / Christine Felbeck (Hgg.): Grenzgänger und Exzentriker, München: Meidenbauer 2010, 185-189.
8. »Gender, genre, Geschlecht dans les approches françaises et allemandes du roman des Lumières«, HeLix 2 (2010), 22-48.
9. »Widerspenstige Utopien in Houellebecqs Particules élémentaires«, Anne Brüske / Isabel Miko Iso, Aglaia Wespe, Kathrin Zehnder, Andrea Zimmermann (Hgg.): Szenen von Widerspenstigkeit. Geschlecht zwischen Affirmation, Subversion und Verweigerung. Politik der Geschlechterverhältnisse Frankfurt / Main Campus 2011, 99-118.
10. »Ecriture et œuvre d’art dans la littérature de la diaspora caribéenne nord-américaine. Formes et fonctions de l’autoréférentialité transmédiale chez Edwige Danticat et Junot Díaz«, Ottmar Ette / Anne Kraume / Werner Mackenbach / Gesine Müller (Hgg.): Caribe como paradigme. Convivencias y coincidencias históricas, culturales y estéticas, Berlin: Edition tranvía 2012, 203-219.
11. »Transkulturelle Räume im US-karibischen Bildungsroman? Kulturkontakt und sozialer Raum bei Judith Ortiz Cofer, Virgil Suárez und Loida Maritza Pérez«, Daniel Graziadei / Louisa Söllner (Hgg.): Über Grenzen sprechen. Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa und der Welt, Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann 2012, 193-211.
12. »Saving a (not so) brown woman from brown men – Das verhinderte Witwenopfer Aoudas«, Jörg Dünne / Kirsten Kramer (Hgg.): Weltnetzwerke – Weltspiele. Jules Vernes Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, Konstanz: KUP 2013, 81-89.
13. »Littératures transculturelles à Montréal et à New York«, Anne Brüske / Herle-Christin Jessen (Hgg.): Dialogues transculturels dans la nouvelle Romania / Diálogos transculturales en la nueva Romania, Tübingen: Narr 2013, 7-25.
14. »Entre Nueva York y la isla. La memoria del espacio insular en la literatura de la diáspora dominicana«, Anne Brüske / Herle-Christin Jessen (Hgg.): Dialogues transculturels dans la nouvelle Romania / Diálogos transculturales en la nueva Romania, Tübingen: Narr 2013, 89-104.
15. »L’amour au temps de l’évolution sociale. Sociabilité, anthropologie et genre dans Lettres de Mistriss Fanni Butlerd et Les Liaisons dangereuses«, Maximilian Gröne / Rotraud v. Kulessa (Hgg.): L’urbanité dans les textes de sociabilité du XVIe siècle jusqu’à la Révolution française, Frankfurt / Main: Peter Lang 2013, 101-123.
Im Druck:
16. »Der geschriebene Mann. Konstruktionen des ‚unmoralischen’ Geschlechtes im Werk Isabelle de Charrières«, Renate Möhrmann (Hg.): Frauenphantasien. Zum ‚imganierten Mann’ von Film- und Buchautorinnen, Stuttgart: Kröner 2014, N.N.
17. »The Caribbean (on the) Dining Table: Contextualizing Culinary Cultures«. Wiebke Beushausen / Anne Brüske / Ana-Sofia Commichau / Patrick Helber / Sinah Kloß (Hgg.): Caribbean Food Cultures. Culinary Practices and Consumption in the Caribbean and its Diasporas, Bielefeld: Transcript 2014, N.N. [mit Wiebke Beushausen, Ana-Sofia Commichau, Patrick Helber, Sinah Kloß]
18. »Cuerpos diaspóricos, cuerpos recalcitrantes«, Claudia Gronemann / Adriana López-Labourdette / Cornelia Sieber (Hgg.): Cuerpos extra / ordinarios, Barcelona: Linkgua 2014, N.N.

Veröffentlichungen in Vorbereitung:

1. One continent / to another. Cultural Flows and Poetic Form in the South Asian and Caribbean Diaspora. Sondernummer der Zeitschrift Atlantic Studies / Global Currents. London: Routledge 2015. [in Kooperation mit Caroline Lusin, durch Journal angenommen]
2. »Dominicanish and Carmelita Tropicana. Latina Performances in the U.S.«, Anne Brüske / Caroline Lusin (Hgg.): One continent / to another. Cultural Flows and Poetic Form in the South Asian and Caribbean Diaspora, London: Routledge 2015, N.N.
3. »¿Nuevas literaturas afrocaribeas ? Raza, clase social y género en las obras de Mayra Santos Febres y Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro«, Gisela Febel / Natascha Ueckmann (Hrgg.): Pluraler Humanismus? Négritude und Negrismo weiter gedacht, N.N. 2015, N.N.

Past affairs:

• December 5th 2012
  Public Lecture: "Kala Pani Discursivity: Framing Indo-Caribbean-ness in a Comparative Francophone /Anglophone Context"
  Prof. Brinda Mehta (Mills College, USA)
  [Poster]
   

• 28th - 29th September 2012
  International Conference: "Carribean Food Cultures - Representations and Performances of Eeating, Drinking and Consumption in the Carribean and Its Diasporas"
  [Programme]
  [Announcement]
  [Poster]
   

• June 6th 2012
  art/o/phonic dialog
  con guerilla-art.mx (México) y Daniel Bengsch (Universität Mannheim)
  http://www.kulturfenster.de/kleinkunstbuehne.php?detail=463
   

• 12th - 14th April 2012
  Conference: „’Wid mi riddim, wid mi rime’: Cultural Flows in Caribbean and South Asian Diasporic Poetry and Performance”
  [Programme]
  [Reader]
  [Poster of conference]
  [Poster of round-table-discussion]
  [Poste of reading with Daljit Nagra]
   
   
• 25th - 28th September 2011
  Section "Transkultureller Dialog in den neuen Romania. Migrationsliteraturen in Montréal und New York" at XXXII. Romanistentag (Humboldt-Universität of Berlin)
  [Description]
  [Abstracts]
  [Timetable]