Sonja E. Klocke

Assistant Professor in Modern Languages-German

General Interests
"I am currently working on a book project which carries forward the findings of my dissertation. This book will investigate diseased and fantastic characters in literary and filmic depictions of the GDR since the 1960s. Combining an analysis of the texts' aesthetics with a consideration of the authors' politics, it reveals how metaphors of suffering can buttress the GDR narrative that legitimizes communist power through the discourse of antifascism. Moreover, it demonstrates the subversive dimension of fantastic literature as it developed in the GDR in the 1970s, and discloses the extent to which writers of the younger generation are rooted in an East German literary tradition."

Years at Knox: 2007 to present

Education
M.A., Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 1994.
M.A., University of Arizona, 2003.
Ph.D., Indiana University, 2007.

Teaching Interests
19th to 21st century German literature, literature and film of the "wende" and unification, gdr literature and film, transnational literature, women’s writing, post-1945 film, cultural studies, queer theory, feminist theory

Recent Accomplishments
Publications
Book Review, Jill E. Twark. "Humor, Satire, and Identity. Eastern German Literature in the 1990s." Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. German Studies Review. Forthcoming February 2010.

"Orientalisierung der DDR?: Spuren von DDR-Literatur und antifaschistischer Tradition in Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde." In: NachBilder der Wende. Eds. Inge Stephan and Alexandra Tacke. Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau-Verlag. Forthcoming Winter 2008.

"Lost in Transition: 'Unfinished Women,' Insanity, and Deviant Bodies as Locus of Memory in the No Man's Land of Thomas Brussig’s Wie es leuchtet." Glossen 26, December 2007.

"The Romantic Artist on the Couch: A Freudian Approach to Wackenroder's Musician Berglinger." Romanticism. Comparative Discourses. The Nineteenth Century Series. Edited by Larry H. Peer and Diane Long Hoeveler. Aldershot (UK) and Burlington, VT: Ashgate (2006): 191-202.

"'Zungen,' borders, and border-crossings: Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Mutterzunge as an attempt to deal with the effects of globalization?" Focus on German Studies 11 (2004): 15-32.

Presentations
"Erinnerung, Kontinuität und Distanz: Zur Problematik von performativem Bruch und Sehnsucht nach historischer Verankerung in Familienstrukturen am Beispiel von Kathrin Schmidts Romanen." XII. Kongress der IVG: Vielheit und Einheit der Germanistik weltweit. Warschau, Poland, July 2007 and August 2010.

"Der Arztroman als Medium des kulturellen Gedächtnisses?: DDR und "Wende" in Kerstin Hensels Lärchenau." German Studies Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., October 2009.

"Aggressive Aspects of Globalization in Juli Zeh's novels." Women in German Annual Conference, Augusta, Michigan, October 2009. (Poster Presentation).

"Transnational Literature or German Literature?: Juli Zeh's Spieltrieb (2004)." 62nd Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 2009.

"Mit Haut und Haarenverschrieben?": Skin as Metaphor in Verena Stefan's Fremdschläfer (2007), Paper, Women in German Annual Conference, Snowbird, Utah, 2008.

"Locating the Global in the Local: Transnational Trends in Juli Zeh's Spieltrieb" (2004), Paper, German Studies Association Annual Conference, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2008.

"How German is Contemporary Transnational Literature Written in German? German and Non-German Aesthetic Conventions in Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Work," Paper, Kentucky Foreign language conference, Lexington, Kentucky, 2008.

"Introduction to Florian Henchek von Donnersmarck's The Life of Others," Invited Talk, First Year Preceptorial, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 2008.

Theater and Drama Pedagogy in Second Language Acquisition, Panel Organizer and Moderator, Women in German Annual Conference, Snowbird, Utah, 2008.

"Nostalgia for Belonging - Re-Definitions of Heimat?," Panel Organizer and Commentator, German Studies Association Annual Conference, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2008.

"Memories of the Divided Berlin in Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde." Women in German Annual Conference, Snowbird, Utah, October 2007.

"Of Transsexuals in Transition, Albinos, and the Visually Challenged: Non-normative bodies in Thomas Brussig's Wie es leuchtet." German Studies Association Annual Conference, San Diego, California, October 2007.

"Staging Communities in the Divided Berlin in Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde." Performing Community: Aesthetics and Politics, Violence and Re-mediation, Bloomington, Indiana, September 2007.

"Nostalgia for Narrative? - The significance of the narrator in Juli Zeh's Adler und Engel (2001)."
60th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 2007.

"Memory as history in Kathrin Schmidt's Die Gunnar-Lennefsen-Expedition: The subversive powers of non-normative bodies in re-telling history." Women in German Annual Conference, Snowbird, Utah, October 2006.

"Collaborative Feminist Pedagogy in the 21st Century: Broadening the Horizons of Germanic Studies." Poster Presentation with Faye Stewart. Women in German Annual Conference, Snowbird, Utah, October 2006.

"Koks, Kohle und Koma: The Construction of Communities through Drugs, Money and Illnesses in Juli Zeh's Adler und Engel." German Studies Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September/October 2006.

"Bodies that matter? - Magic means of travel, imaginary expeditions, and the construction of fantastic bodies in Kathrin Schmidt's Die Gunnar-Lennefsen-Expedition." 59th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 2006.

"Fantastic Bodies on Magic Screens: Kathrin Schmidt's Die Gunnar-Lennefsen-Expedition as an attempt to rewrite history." Department of Germanic Studies Colloquium, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, April 2006.

"Illness as Metaphor? - Healing, Cancer, and Society in Christa Wolf's Work." 34th Annual 20th Century Literature and Culture Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, February 2006.

"The Psychological Aspect of the Colonial Situation in Uwe Timm's Morenga." South-Atlantic MLA Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2005.

"Uncanny Rem(a)inders: Uwe Timm's Gottschalk as a modern Romantic Artist Figure." Conference on Twentieth-Century Romantics: A Century of Reception Assessed, London, England, May 2005.

"The "Kolonialwarenladen" in Northern Germany: The Exotic as Part of Colonial Subjectivity in Uwe Timm's Morenga." 58th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 2005.

"Crossing Cultural and Linguistic Boundaries in Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Mutterzunge." 57th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 2004.

"Reading Men's Texts on Female Bodies: The Consequences of Male Pedagogy on Women in the 19th Century." Third Graduate Student Conference: Innovation: From Pen to Application, Edmonton, Alberta, March 2004.

"Wackenroder (re-)visited: A Freudian Approach to his Artist Berglinger." International Conference on Romanticism: Romanticism and Its Other Discourses, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 2003.

"Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Mutterzunge - An Attempt to Deal With the Effects of Globalization?" Focus on German Studies Conference: Crossing Borders, Cultures, and Disciplines, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 2003.

"Co-construction of Language in a Commercial English as a Second Language Chatroom and Its Impact on Language Development and Strategic Competence." With Senta Goertler, CALICO Conference, Ottawa, Canada, May 2003.

"Mainstreamed and Pre-mainstreamed College ESL Students: What Is the impact of Chat on their Language Development?" Poster Presentation with Senta Goertler, CALICO Conference, Ottawa, Canada, May 2003.

"Co-construction of Language in a Commercial English as a Second Language Chatroom and Its Impact on Language Development and Strategic Competence." With Senta Goertler, SLAT Interdisciplinary Roundtable, Tucson, Arizona, February 2003.

Campus & Community Involvement
German Studies Association (GSA).
Modern Language Association (MLA).
Women in German (WiG).
American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

Contact
309-341-7146
sklocke@knox.edu