Dr. Gianna Zocco

Research team leader of the project Black Narratives of Transcultural Appropriation: Constructing Afropean Worlds, Questioning European Foundations

CV

  • from 12/2023: Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant project "Black Narratives of Transcultural Appropriation: Constructing Afropean Worlds, Questioning European Foundations" (AFROPEA)
  • 07/2019–11/2023: Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the ZfL (07/2022–08/2023: maternity leave)
  • 10/2013–06/2019: Assistant Professor ("Universitätsassistentin") at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna (05/2018-05/2019: maternity leave)
  • 03/2016–02/2017: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City (Fellow of the Max Kade Foundation)
  • 2013: Research Fellowship from the University of Vienna
  • 10/2011–06/2018: Lecturer at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna
  • 01/2011–02/2013: DOC-Fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences
  • 2010–2013: PhD-Student of comparative literature at the University of Vienna (completed with distinction)
  • 2005–2009: Student of comparative literature and philosophy at the Universities of Vienna and Bonn (Mag. phil., completed with distinction)

Research Interests

  • African European and African Diasporic literature, especially Black German literature and transnational perspectives
  • African-American Literature in relation to Europe, particularly to the German-speaking region
  • James Baldwin
  • Discourses of transcultural appropriation and literature
  • Comparative imagology

Publications

Monographs

  • Das Motiv des Fensters als Öffnung ins Innere in Erzähltexten seit 1945. (= Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, vol. 174) Berlin: Weidler 2014.
  • "Sag an, mein Freund, die Ordnung der Unterwelt." Das Gilgamesch-Epos in Hans Henny Jahnns "Fluß ohne Ufer" (= Wiener Beiträge zur Komparatistik und Romanistik, Band 17) Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang 2010.

Edited Volumes

  • with Sandra Folie: Sketches of Black Europe. Imagining Europe/ans in African and African Diasporic Narratives. (Special Issue of CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society, vol. 6), 2024.
  • with Katharina Edtstadler and Sandra Folie: New Perspectives on Imagology. (Series: Studia Imagologica, Vol. 30) Leiden and Boston: Brill 2022 / Open Access.
  • The Rhetoric of Topics and Forms. (Series: The Many Languages of Comparative Literature. Collected Papers of the 21st Congress of the ICLA, Vol. 4) Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2021 / Open Access.

Articles

  • with Sandra Folie. "Sketches of Black Europe: Imagining Europe/ans in African and African Diasporic Narratives." (Introduction) In: CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society, vol. 6 (Special Issue “Sketches of Black Europe. Imagining Europe/ans in African and African Diasporic Narratives”, eds. Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco), 2024, pp. 13-42, https://dx.doi.org/10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-16076-2.p.0013.
    "Provincialising Europe 'from the Inside': James Baldwin’s and Vincent O. Carter’s Writings about Switzerland." In: CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society, vol. 6 (Special Issue “Sketches of Black Europe. Imagining Europe/ans in African and African Diasporic Narratives”, eds. Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco), 2024, S. 117-141, https://dx.doi.org/10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-16076-2.p.0117.
  • with Katharina Edtstadler and Sandra Folie: "Introduction. New Perspectives on Imagology." In: New Perspectives on Imagology, eds. Katharina Edtstadler, Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco. Leiden and Boston: Brill 2022, pp. 1–46, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513150_002.
  • "The Fall of the Berlin Wall Transnational: Images and Stereotypes in Yadé Kara’s Selam Berlin and Paul Beatty’s Slumberland." In: New Perspectives on Imagology, eds. Katharina Edtstadler, Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco. Leiden and Boston: Brill 2022, pp. 131–150, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513150_007.
  • "Introduction: The Rhetoric of Topics and Forms." In: The Rhetoric of Topics and Forms, ed. Gianna Zocco. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2021, pp. 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110642032-001.
    "Love and Propaganda in W. E. B. Du Bois's Novel Dark Princess." In: The Rhetoric of Topics and Forms, ed. Gianna Zocco. Berlin und Boston: De Gruyter 2021, pp. 115–126, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110642032-010.
  • "Zwischen amerikanischer Color-Line und deutscher Teilung. Relationen der Nähe und Nachbarschaft in afroamerikanischen Berlin-Romanen der Gegenwart" In: Online-Anthologie „Nachbarschaften“, eds. Christina Ernst and Hanna Hamel, 2020, http://zfl-nachbarschaften.org/2020/10/16/zwischen_amerikanischer_colorline_und_deutscher_teilung/.
  • "'Sometimes things begin with the wrong book': Images and Intertexts in Darryl Pinckney’s Black Deutschland." In: Taking Stock – Twenty-Five Years of Comparative Literary Research, eds. Norbert Bachleitner, Achim Hölter, and John A. McCarthy. Leiden and Boston: Brill 2019, pp. 421–444, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004410350_017.
  • "The Janus-face of Visibility: Windows, Transparency and Surveillance in Contemporary German Literature." In: Dedans Dehors. Approches pluridisciplinaires de la fenêtre, ed. Karolina Katsika. Besançon: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté 2019, pp. 269–286.
  • "'Let’s go up and have another look at that window.' Zur Funktion der Raumelemente und Raumstrukturen in Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929)." In: Fenster – Korridor – Treppe. Architektonische Wahrnehmungsdispositive in der Literatur und in den Künsten, eds. Lena Abraham, Kira Jürjens, Edith Anna Kunz and Elias Zimmermann. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2019, pp. 181-196.
  • "'If I could name and face my crime.' Ethical Writing as Political Counter-Discourse in James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room." In: Counter|Culture. Literature, Language, Agency, eds. Friederike Wolfrum and Désirée Kriesch. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann 2018, pp. 137-151.
  • "'Darling Mother': Ein amerikanischer Aufstiegstraum und seine private Motivation. Eine anerkennungstheoretische Lektüre von James M. Cains Mildred Pierce." In: Literatur und Anerkennung. Wechselwirkungen und Perspektiven, eds. Andrea Albrecht, Moritz Schramm and Tilman Venzl. Zürich: LIT Verlag 2017, pp. 305-324.
  • "Disturbing the Peace of 'Two Not So Very Different' Countries: James Baldwin and Fritz Raddatz." In: James Baldwin Review, 3, 2017, pp. 89-109, http://dx.doi.org/10.7227/JBR.3.6.
  • "Passion for the Other – Passion for the Self? Voyeurism and Subjectivity in Heimito von Doderer’s Die erleuchteten Fenster (1950) and Siri Hustvedt’s The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996)" In: Narrating the Passions. New Perspectives from Modern and Contemporary Literature, eds. Simona Corso and Beth Guilding. Oxford et. al.: Peter Lang 2017, pp. 101-114.
  • "'Afroamerikanophilie‘ auf dem Buchmarkt? Die Literatur von James Baldwin im deutschsprachigen Raum." In: Zurück in die Zukunft. Digitale Medien und historische Buchforschung, eds. Julia Danielczyk, Murray Hall, Christine Hermann, and Sandra Vlasta. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz 2016, pp. 131-144.
  • "'Menschwerdung‘ at the Window: The Motif of the Window and the Quest for Identity in Four Austrian Novels by Heimito von Doderer, Peter Handke, Gerhard Roth, and Richard Obermayr." In: The Window. Motif and Topos in Austrian, German, and Swiss Art and Literature, eds. Heide Kunzelmann and Anne Simon. London: Iudicium 2016, pp. 110-130.
  • "Adresse." In: (Rück)Sendungen – Zu Jacques Derridas "Envois", ed. Matthias Schmidt. Wien: Turia + Kant 2015, pp. 43-54.
  • "'You have walked backward three million years.' Joshua Ferris' Roman The Unnamed als amerikanische Road Novel und existenzielles Drama über einen wandering man des 21. Jahrhunderts." In: Sehnsucht suchen? Amerikanische Topographien aus komparatistischer Perspektive, eds. Simone Sauer-Kretschmer and Christian A. Bachmann. Berlin: Christian A. Bachmann 2014, pp. 193-206.
  • "The Hot-House Atmosphere of Cell Number 40[4]: Space and Identity in Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon." In: Arcadia, 49/1, 2014, pp. 139–157, https://doi.org/10.1515/arcadia-2014-0009.
  • "Der Andere hinter dem Fenster. Zum intermedialen Potential der (Ohn-)Macht des Sehens in Patricia Highsmiths Roman The Cry of the Owl (1962) und den drei Adaptationen von Claude Chabrol (1987), Tom Toelle (1987) und Jamie Thraves (2009)." In: Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur, 38/2, 2013, pp. 403–426, https://doi.org/10.1515/iasl-2013-0018.
    "'Daß ein Stuhl kein Stuhl ist.' Zum Verhältnis von Raum, Körper und psychischer Störung in Gerhard Roths Der große Horizont und Alain Robbe-Grillets La Jalousie." In: Kritische Ausgabe – Zeitschrift für Germanistik & Literatur, Nr. 24 (Themenschwerpunkt: Architektur), 2013, pp. 34-37.

Reviews and Miscellanea (Selection)

Lectures

(Selection)

  • "Literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Praktiken der Aneignung von Vergangenheit." Workshop on practices of appropriating the past within the Leibniz Research Lab 3.2 of the Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past", Warburg Haus, Hamburg, June 2022.
  • "Of European Tribes and Strangers in the Village. Ethnographic Gazes and Intertextual Relations in African Diasporic Texts." Blankensee-Colloquium Sketches of Black Europe, ZfL Berlin, March 2022.
  • "Transatlantische Freundschaft: Die literarischen Unruhestifter James Baldwin und Fritz Raddatz." Public Lecture as part of the exhibition "Like you! Friendship", Museum for Communication Berlin, November 2019.
  • "Fear, Love and Safety in James Baldwin and Colm Tóibín", Conference Fear and Anxiety (7th conference of the European Network of Comparative Literary Studies, ENCLS/REELC), University of Helsinki, August 2017.
  • "Berlin Blues. How Contemporary Fiction Recounts the Holocaust through the Eyes of African-American Jazz Musicians." Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association. University of Utrecht, July 2017.
  • "'It is this journey toward a more vast reality which must take prevalence over all other claims' – James Baldwin und die (Un)vereinbarkeit von Literatur und Protest." Public Lecture at Klub Irrko Space Night, Vienna, June 2017.
  • "'A monster created by the American Republic?' Richard Wright, James Baldwin und die getötete Ratte in der Anfangsszene von Native Son." HabilitandInnenforum Tiere in kultureller Praxis und ästhetischer Kommunikation. Universität Wien, April 2017.
  • "Liebe, Erotik und Propaganda in W. E. B. Du Bois' Roman Dark Princess." World Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association. Universität Wien, July 2016.
  • "James Baldwin and His Long-Time Friend, Editor, and Reviewer Fritz Raddatz." Conference James Baldwin, Paris, and International Views. The American University of Paris, May 2016.
  • "The Old World as New Home? The Role of Europe in Fictional Writings of the Harlem Renaissance." Conference Longing and Belonging of the European Network for Comparative Literary Studies. Dublin City University/National University of Ireland, Galway, August 2015.
  • "From Travel Destination to Fictional Setting: The Function of Europe in Jessie Fauset’s There Is Confusion (1924) and Comedy: American Style (1933)." Conference of the Collegium for African American Research (CAAR). Liverpool Hope University, June 2015.
  • "'White people fulla shit, especially when they run a place like Dachau.' Fiction, History, and Ethics in John A. Williams’ Clifford’s Blues." Konferenz Ethics of Storytelling: Historical Imagination in Contemporary Literature, Media and Visual Arts. University of Turku, June 2015.
  • "Windows and Recognition in the Context of Surveillance." Colloque international interdisciplinaire Fenêtre. Ouvertures et Perspectives, Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, January 2015.
  • "Afroamerikanische Literatur im deutschsprachigen Raum. Das Beispiel James Baldwin." Interdisciplinary Symposium Zurück in die Zukunft – Digitale Medien und historische Buchforschung, Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, Oktober 2014.
  • "Ethical Writing as Political ‚Counter-Discourse‘? Politics, Philosophy and Narrative Strategies in James Baldwin’s Early Novels." Workshop Mightier than the Sword? The Countercultural Agency of Literary Fiction, University of Innsbruck, June 2014.
  • "Vom gelungenen Kampf um soziale Wertschätzung, vom misslungenen Kampf um emotionale Zuwendung und von der Überkreuzung dieser beiden Anerkennungsweisen in James M. Cains Roman Mildred Pierce", Conference Literatur und Anerkennung, Syddansk Universitet Odense, Mai 2014.
  • "'Menschwerdungʻ at the Window: the Contribution of Windows to Identity in four Austrian Novels by Heimito von Doderer, Peter Handke, Gerhard Roth and Richard Obermayr." Conference Windows. Their Literary, Cultural, Artistic and Psychological Significance in the German-Speaking Territories from the Middle Ages to the Present, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London, July 2013

Courses

Humboldt University of Berlin, Department of Cultural History and Theory

  • Seminar "Schwarze deutsche Literatur und Kultur(-theorie)" (SoSe 2024, with Sandra Folie)
  • Seminar "Schwarzes Europa: Blicke auf Europa in Literatur und Kultur des Black Atlantic"

 

University of Vienna, Department of Comparative Literature

  • Proseminar "Neue Perspektiven auf die Imagologie" (SoSe 2018, with Katharina Edtstadler and Sandra Folie)
  • Proseminar "Die Stadt Berlin in der Literatur" (WiSe 2017/18)
  • Proseminar "James Baldwin intertextuell" (SoSe 2017)
  • Lecture "Europa und europäische Geschichte in afroamerikanischer Literatur", as part of the lecture series "TRANSEUROPA. Das Konzept Europa im globalen Kontext" (WiSe 2015/16, organized by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christine Ivanovic)
  • Proseminar "Literarische Außenperspektiven auf Europa: Schwerpunkt afroamerikanische Literatur" (WiSe 2015/16)
  • Introductory Lecture "STEOP: Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft" (every semester from SoSe 2012 to SoSe 2015)
  • Proseminar "Innen- und Außenraum in der Gegenwartsliteratur" (WiSe 2011/12)