About

Hanna Elisabeth Schumacher (*1984) was awarded the degree of Magistra Artium (M.A.) by the University of Trier in 2012. While there, she studied German Studies (Germanistik) with focus on contemporary and medieval German literature, Spanish Philology and Cultural Anthropology. From 2007, she was a student research assistant at several departments, e.g. the Department for Yiddish Studies and the Department for German Studies, as well as in several research projects. After graduating, she continued as a research assistant for the forthcoming Sonderforschungsbereich (Special Research Field). In 2013 she joined the University of Warwick as a postgraduate research student, starting a project entitled "Zur Verhandlung der Conditio Posthumana in der zeitgenössischen deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur – Gesellschaftskonstitution, Subjektivitätsentwicklung und Kunst" (Supervisor: Dr Helmut Schmitz).

In February 2019, she was awarded her philosophical doctorate by the University of Warwick.

Research interests and PhD-project

Starting out with a general interest in posthuman_ist theory and its relatedness to especially Science Fiction literature, she is currently interested in mapping out the relations between Critical Posthumanism and Critical Theory, trying to show how they interlap, interfere and enrich each other. Theoretically, she mostly draws from Critical Posthuman_ists like Stephan Herbrechter, Rosi Braidotti, Cary Wolfe or Neil Badmington; her engagement with Critical Theory is mostly influenced by the works of Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, therefore in the tradition of the Frankfurt School. In her research, she analyses posthuman_ist conceptions of society and the world in contemporary German literature. Furthermore, her project is focused on showing how a posthuman_ist poetics can or is established via literary texts or the arts in general. She is also interested in dystopian and utopian narratives in film and literature alike, especially when linked to technological development and the apocalyptic. Currently, her thesis focuses on texts by contemporary German author Dietmar Dath. Dietmar Dath, born in 1970, is a rather young author with a particular interest in Science or Speculative Fiction narratives, which is reflected in his novels as well. She is looking at "Die Abschaffung der Arten" (2008) as well as his most recent novel, "Feldeváye. Roman der Letzten Künste" (2014). Other authors featuring in her project are Reinhard Jirgl ("Nichts von euch auf Erden", 2013), Juli Zeh ("Corpus Delicti. Ein Prozess", 2005) and most recently Leif Randt ("Planet Magnon", 2015).

Other

Since the academic year 2014/2015, Hanna is also a postgraduate representative for the German Studies SSLC. Furthermore, she started teaching as a module tutor for the First-Year-Module GE108: Writers, Media and Society in Contemporary Germany.

In 2014/15: Co-organiser of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures Postgraduate Symposium 2015 with Matt Coneys (Italian Studies, Warwick), Clare Siviter (French Studies, Warwick) and Maria Roca Lizarazu (German Studies, Warwick)

Awards

Chancellor's Scholarship, University of Warwick, 2013.

Publications

With Simon Neuberg: "Aus den Lebenserinnerungen von Jacob Simon. Jüdische Worte und Redensarten." In: Jiddistik-Mitteilungen Nr. 47/48 (2012), S. 1-24.

Review Tamar Lewinsky: "Unterbrochenes Gedicht. Jiddische Literatur in Deutschland 1944-1950. München 2011." In: Jiddistik-Mitteilungen Nr. 49 (2013) .

Presentations

A "shared bond of vulnerability" (?). Posthuman_ist theory in a globalised world and in German contemporary literature.
DAAD Postgraduate Summer School, 07.-10. July 2015, University of Oxford.

“Kann nicht sprechen. Kann nicht reden.” (“Cannot speak. Cannot talk.”) Developing a conditio (post)humana in Dietmar Dath’s Die Abschaffung der Arten (2008)? 5th Conference on Current Research in Speculative Fiction, 08. June 2015, University of Liverpool.

Die (Un-)Möglichkeit einer Versöhnung? Dietmar Dath, Critical Theory and Posthuman/ist Poetics. 57th National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies, 19. - 20. March 2015, Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London.

Nach der Langeweile. Zur Entwicklung posthumaner Gesellschaften in Dietmar Daths Die Abschaffung der Arten (2008).
Third Salzburg Institute Symposium: “A Perfect World?/ Eine heile Welt?” 31. July 2014, University of Salzburg, Austria.

Gestern ist heute ist morgen. Die Dimension Zeit in Speculative Fiction. International PHD and Postdoctoral Workshop:
Living in a Culture of Immediacy: the Longing for Time in Contemporary Culture, 14. May 2014, University of Konstanz.

“Nachrangige Unterschiede”. The human, the animal and the Great Divide. Human Animal Studies in perspective to Dietmar Dath. Transnational German Studies Graduate Workshop, 19.-26. May 2013, University of Warwick.

Contact

H.E.Schumacher@warwick.ac.uk

Profile on academia.edu: https://warwick.academia.edu/HannaElisabethSchumacher