Professor Martina Lauster
Emeritus Professor
Overview
Professor Lauster works mainly in comparative literature of the nineteenth century. She is interested in the 'journalistic revolution' that began to affect all forms of writing and publishing from about 1830. Her publications focus on German literature, notably metropolitan illustrated sketches, in a European context. Special interests include the influence of scientific observation (e.g. microscopy) and of popular forms of entertainment (e.g. magic lantern shows) on literary representation. She is currently working on a study of Karl Gutzkow as an author to be understood within nineteenth-century networks of knowledge. She also (co-)edits texts appearing in the internet edition of Gutzkow's works and, together with Professor Gert Vonhoff, acts as coordinator of this international, Exeter-based project.
Supervision
Research students
Postgraduate Supervision since 2001
- PhD Male Creativity and Female Death in C19 German Narrative Prose, Hadaya Chisholm-El Saad, 2000-2004. Exeter grant.
- PhD on ‘The man of letters and journal editor August Lewald (1792-1871)', Veronica Butler, 2007-10.
- (Co-supervision) PhD on ‘Ingeborg Bachmann's literary depiction of horror in relation to paintings by Goya', Verena Timmerer, 2006-09.
More information
Conference Papers (since 2001)
- 'From physiognomy to physiology. Scientific paradigms in socio-cultural sketches of the 1830s and 40s'
July 2001, University of Exeter, Physiognomy in Profile: Lavater's Impact on European Culture - 'The quest for the German citizen. "Bürgerlichkeit" in journalistic sketches of the 1830s and 40s'
November 2001, Institute of Germanic Studies, London, Politics in Literature - 'The continuity of the Gentleman Ideal in German literature from Lichtenberg to Hofmannsthal'
October 2002, University of Cambridge, The Fragile Tradition - 'Piecing together the City: French, Austrian and English Panoramic Sketches of the 1830s and 40s'
April 2004, University of Liverpool, Conference of University Teachers of German in Great Britain and Ireland - 'Goethe und Schiller im Urteil Heines und seiner Zeitgenossen (1830-1850)'
May 2005, Goethe-Gesellschaft, Weimar, Schillers Goethe - Goethes Schiller (in celebration of the Schiller centenary) - 'The Flâneur: Destruction of a Benjaminian Myth'
March 2006, University of Leeds, Conference of University Teachers of German in Great Britain and Ireland - 'Microscopy and the social body. Early sociology in sketches of the 1830s and 40s'
September 2007, Alexander von Humboldt Society, London, 10th anniversary meeting.
Professor Lauster also gave eleven papers at research seminars outside Exeter
