PD Dr. Susanne Gruß

Research Interests

• law and literature; early modern drama; early modern piracy; contemporary literature (focus on neo-Victorianism); literary and cultural theory (focus on gender studies & feminism); film & media studies (focus on processes of adaptation & canonisation); gothic; psychogeography;

Short CV

• WS 2020/21-SoSe 2021: Visiting Professor/Vertretungsprofessur, Department for English Studies, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

• Postdoc project / Habilitation: The Laws of Excess: Law, Literature, and the Laws of Genre on the Early Modern Stage
• Dissertation: The Pleasure of the Feminist Text: The (De)Construction of Gender in the Works of Michèle Roberts and Angela Carter
• Since September 2001: member of academic staff / wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, FAU
• Magister Artium (Englische Philologie, Neuere deutsche Literaturgeschichte und Neuere/Neueste Geschichte) and Lehramt Gymnasium (Englisch, Deutsch), FAU and Trinity College, Dublin (DAAD Scholarship)

Current Research Projects

• edited volume Practices and Narratives of Piracy: Connecting the Early Modern Seas (with Marcus Hartner)
• articles on black neo-Victorianism, law and literature, and early modern piracy
• project on “Practices of Collaborations in Early Modern English Theatre: Authors, Actors, Printers, Playhouses, and Their Texts” (with Lena Steveker)

Publications

Papers (selection):

• (2020) “‘Toxic’ Masculinity, Effeminacy and Necrophilia in Middleton’s The Lady’s Tragedy and Massinger’s The Duke of Milan.” Invited lecture, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 29 June.
• (2020) “‘That cunning writ’: Epistolary Proof and Revenge in James Shirley’s The Cardinal.” Epistolary Culture in the English Restoration, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 27-28 March.
• (2019) (with Lena Frommer & Verena Rissmann) “Literarische Piraten in der Hochschuldidaktik: Studentische Konferenzen als Einstieg in die Forschungspraxis.” Forschung und Lehre – Widerspruch oder Synergie? Interdisziplinäres Symposium: Methoden in der Hochschullehre, LMU München, 09-10 October.
• (2019) “From Law-and-Literature to Law and the Humanities, Law and Culture… and Beyond?” Literature and …? Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity, Anglistentag 2019, Leipzig University, 22-25 September.
• (2019) “Black, Queer, Victorian? The Precarious Neo-Victorian Afterlives of Prince Alemayehu.” (Neo‑)Victorian ‘Orientations’ in the Twenty-First Century, University of Málaga, Spain, 15-17 May.
• (2018) “Marston’s Tragi-Comic Revenge Trio: Testing Generic Boundaries in the Antonio-Plays and The Malcontent.” Writing Renaissance Experience – Experiencing Renaissance Writing, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 05-06 July.
• (2018) “Refracturing Victorian Masculinity: The Curious Case of Dr James Miranda Barry.” De/Constructing Masculinities? Critical Explorations into Affect, Intersectionality, and the Body, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 22-23 June.
• (2018) (with Marcus Hartner) “Introduction: Buccaneers, Corsairs, Pirates and Privateers.” Buccaneers, Corsairs, Pirates and Privateers: Connecting the Early Modern Seas, international symposium, Bielefeld University, 13-14 April.
• (2017) “Walking London, Walking the Past: Michèle Roberts’s The Walworth Beauty (2017).” Reading Michèle Roberts, University of Łódź, Poland, 07-08 September.
• (2017) “Jane Austen and ‘Jane Austen’: Regency Literature, Janeites and Darcymaniacs.” Invited lecture, University of Basel, Switzerland, 18 May.
• (2016) “Pirates and Their Daughters: Strangeness, Genre and the Law in The Double Marriage and The Unnatural Combat.” Strangeness in Early Stuart Performances, 1603-1649, Saarland University, 03-05 November.
• (2015) “‘Clermont must author this just tragedy’: The (In)Justices of Early Modern Revenge Tragedy.” Poetic Justice: Legal, Ethical, and Aesthetic Judgments in Literary Texts (Connotations Symposium), Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, 26-30 July.
• (2015) “Golems, Vampires and a Mechanical Queen: Neo-Gothic Detection and the Psychogeography of Urban Change.” Transforming Cities, TU Braunschweig, 03-04 July.
• (2014) “Jane Austen 2.0 – Immersion, Sequels, Mash-Ups.” Ringvorlesung Populärkultur, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 02 June.
• (2013) “Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus.” Ringvorlesung Classics of the English Canon, Johannes. Gutenberg University Mainz, 18 July.
• (2013) “Jacobean Drama.” Gastvorlesung, Universität Basel, 02 May.
• (2013) “Philip Massinger for the Middle Temple? The Queen of Corinth, The Fatal Dowry and the Genre of Legal Learning.” Renaissance Men at the Middle Temple, Birbeck College, London, 01-02 February.
• (2012) “Bleak London: (Neo-)Dickensian Psychogeographies.” Topographies of Britain, Universität Basel, 22-24 November.
• (2012) “From Bollywood to Hollywood and Back Again: Transcultural Adaptation.” Inderdisciplinary lectureseries Understanding India, Universität Germersheim, 09 July.
• (2012) “What Early Modern Literature Learnt from the Law – and Vice Versa.” Can Literature Learn from Law? Münster Symposium on Law and Literature, Universität Münster, 21-22 May.
• (2011) “‘Thou monster of cruelty, forbear!’: Women and ‘Gothic’ Monstrosity on the Early Modern Stage.” The Monster Inside Us, The Monsters Around Us: Monstrosity and Humanity, De Montfort University, Leicester, 18-20 November.
• (2011) “Jacobean Gothic and the Law: Revengers and Ineffectual Rulers in Middleton and Massinger.” Gothic Limits / Gothic Ltd. 10th Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association. Universität Heidelberg, 02-05 August.
• (2011) “‘Whose hand presents this gory spectacle?’: Monstrous Rulers on the Early Modern Stage and the Breakdown of the Law.” Re-Thinking the Monstrous: Violence and Criminality in Society, LMU München, 01-03 July.
• (2011) “Wilde Crimes: Biographilia, the Art of Murder and Decadent (Homo)Sexuality in Gyles Brandreth’s Oscar Wilde-Series.” Neo-Victorian Art and Aestheticism, University of Hull, 26 March.
• (2010) (mit Nadine Böhm) “Introduction.” Fashioning the Neo-Victorian: Iterations of the Nineteenth Century in Contemporary Literature and Culture, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 08-10 April.
• (2009) “‘But there was something very appealing about that Fe-Male’: Transgender und Passing im zeitgenössischen britischen Roman.” Ringvorlesung Phänomene der Fremdheit, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 17 December.
• (2009) “Thomas Middleton’s Gothic Nightmares: The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Bloody Banquet and The Lady’s Tragedy.” Gothic Renaissance, Universität Köln, 03-04 December.
• (2009) “Carter’s Excessive Stagings of the Canon: Psychoanalytic Closets, Hermaphroditic Dreams, and Jacobean Westerns.” Angela Carter: A Critical Exploration, University of Northampton, 05-07 June.
• (2008) “‘The Flesh Made Word’ – Sensuous Religion in the Works of Michèle Roberts.” Anglistentag 2008, Universität Tübingen, 05-08 October.
• (2008) “Shakespeare in Bollywood? Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara.” Semiotic Encounters: Text, Image and Trans-Nation, University of Stuttgart, 17-20 July.
• (2007) “‘A few flowery phrases and he thinks I’m his’ – (Re)Appropriations of Wordsworth in Contemporary Literature and Film.” 18^th British Cultural Studies Conference – High Culture and/versus Popular Culture, Universität Salzburg, 22-24 November.
• (2007) (mit Nadine Böhm) „Post-Colonial Shakespeares – Ein Unterrichtsexperiment.“ Workshop Anglistische Hochschuldidaktik: Alternative Lehr-/Lernformate, Universität Bielefeld, 04-06 October.
• (2007) “‘…into the Shadows’: The Frailty of Masculinity in Angela Carter’s ‘Bristol Trilogy’.” Men and Madness: Representing Male Psychopathology and Mental Disorder in Modern and Contemporary Culture, Manchester Metropolitan University, 28-30 June.
• (2007) “Sex and the City? (Re)Empowering mistresses, muses and prostitutes.” ASNEL – Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, 17-20 May.
• (2006) “Jane Austen in Kholiwood? Bride and Prejudice at the Crossroads of Hollywood and Bollywood Aesthetics.” Bollywood and Beyond. Contemporary Indian Cinemas and Globalisation, TU Dresden, 23-24 June.