European Literatures and Interculturality

• Expert: the programme offers the opportunity to become an expert in one of the target languages and to develop abstract and analytical thinking in relation to intercultural practices
• Group size: we work in small groups in which all students' active participation and input are highly valued
• Innovative and diverse: we value original ideas and foster the encounter of diversified perspectives. Our staff members also distinguish themselves by their innovative research and teaching methods

• International: our staff have received their doctorates from a variety of Dutch and international universities (Pisa, Freiburg, Nottingham, Cambridge, Leiden, Munich)
• Employability: intercultural and transferrable skills

The programme consists of 1) the compulsory course "Theoretical approaches to European literature" in which selected literary theories will be applied to literary analysis; 2) two courses of 10 credits each on European literatures; 3) one Interdisciplinary seminar where the student can focus on a particular topic such as representations of space or migrant literature, and 4) a thesis written in the target language (20 credits).

It is possible to replace the Interdisciplinary seminar by a Master's placement.

In addition to the range of course units provided by the track itself, students can also follow Masterlanguage courses. Masterlanguage is a national programme that offers courses for students of German, French, Italian and Spanish. The courses are taught in the target language and are jointly organised by lecturers from Radboud University, the University of Groningen, Leiden University, Utrecht University, the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam. More information about the courses, entry requirements and registration can be found on the Masterlanguage website: https://masterlanguage.nl/en/. You may follow Masterlanguage courses in consultation with the Board of Examiners of your Master's degree programme.

The track aims to provide you with academic skills and approaches that will prepare you to operate as a cultural expert wherever texts are involved: in the private sphere, in the media, in institutions and in networks. You learn to analyse these processes and functions, to solve problems and to communicate about them clearly and with flair.

The research projects of staff members are innovative and international and range from the analysis of (offensive) humor in controversial cartoons to garden writings and sustainability, from digital media representations to literary self-identification of marginalized or minority groups..

Students have a free choice of dissertation subjects within the areas of staff expertise and are encouraged to develop new and innovative approaches and ideas. Examples of topics that have been proposed by our students focus for example on decolonial or postcolonial discourses, on trauma and exile, on ecocriticsm or on concepts such as transculturality and heterotopia through in-depth analysis of contemporary case studies. Examples of dissertations are:

• From a barren desert to a microbial jungle: Deep-sea narratives in the Anthropocene
• Heimat als Heterotopie: Ortlosigkeit und Vielortigkeit der neuen Heimat in Keuns Kind aller Länder und Stanišićs Herkunft
• Le transculturalisme littéraire à travers deux « intrangères » issues de l’exil. Une comparaison entre L’art de perdre d’Alice Zeniter et Marx et la poupée de Maryam Madjidi
• Trauma - Ironi i ungdomsromanen Tio över ett. Hur kolliderande former skapar en personlig bild av Kirunas flyttning
• Ambivalent feminism: Hashtagification, YouTubification, and Eurovisionization of women's rights in Russia

Dissertations may be supervised by any appropriate member of staff. The following list indicates the areas of expertise of the various staff members:

Vera Alexander: English and Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, Ecocriticism, Travel writing and mobility, Life Writing, Bildungsroman, Children’s Literature, Place, Space, Heterotopia, Diaspora, Transculturality.

Alberto Godioli: Humour and satire across media; Law and Humanities; Comparative literature, 19^th-21^st centuries; Italian literature and culture, including film; Modernism; Posthumanism.

Ester Jiresch: Scandinavian Literature, Culture, and History, Swedish Politics, Scandinavian Crime Novel, Modern European Culture and History, Gender Studies.

Florian Lippert: Modern German literature, Modern European literature and culture, Film Studies, The European migrant crisis, Literary Theory, Film Theory, Reception Theory, Critical Theory, Systems Theory, Art and Literature in Philosophy, Sociology and Politics, Self-reflexivity, Surveillance.

Hugh McDonnell: 20^th Century French and Spanish Political, Social and Cultural History, French and Spanish Politics, Culture, Identity, and Politics, The Idea of Europe and European Identity, Political Theory.

Konstantin Mierau: Empirical Study of Literary Reception, Prison Reading, Digimodernism and Literature, Spanish Golden Age Literature, The (Spanish) Picaresque Novel.

Ksenia Robbe: Russian Literature and Culture, Eastern European and Postsocialist studies, Postcolonial and Decolonial Theory, Memory and Time Studies, Feminism and Gender studies, South African Literature and Culture, Visual Art, Museums, Theatre and Performance, Aesthetics and Politics.

Camilla Sutherland: Contemporary Spanish-Language Literature, Women Writers, Gender Studies, Spatial Theory, Latin American Literature and Culture, Global Modernisms, Avant-gardes, Art History, Film Studies, Theatre and Performance.

Jeanette den Toonder: Contemporary French and francophone Literature, Migrant and Minority Literature, Literary Theory, Comparative Literature, Contemporary Quebec novel, Gender studies, Spatial Theory, Life Writing, Transculturality.

Pablo Valdivia: Multidisciplinary Humanities Research, Cultural Analytics, Cultural Narratives, Narrative Theory, Metaphor Theory, European Literature and Culture, Comparative Literary Studies, Film Studies, Visual Studies, Literature and Culture from the Golden Age till the Present, Art History, Theatre, Poetry, European Politics and Culture, Spanish and Latin American Literature, Culture and Society.

Vera Veldhuizen: Children’s Literature, Young Adult/Adolescent Literature, Picture books, Fairy tales, Fables, Narrative Empathy, Script Theory, Irish Literature, War Literature, Literary Theory, Cognitive Studies.

Judith Jansma: French and Francophone Literatures and Culture, Literature and societal conflict, Populist narratives of (national) identity, Feminism and Gender Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis