Franziska Jekel-Twittmann, M.A.

Currently Franziska Jekel-Twittmann works as a research assistant at the German Department at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.

Dissertation Abstract

My dissertation is based on the observation that poverty cannot be defined by economic parameters alone. Rather, the explicit or implicit use of stereotypes, metaphors, and topoi has an impact on the definition of poverty as well as historically variable religious and political categories. Literary texts in particular make use of these images by reflecting on them, reinforcing or destabilizing them. The invention of lies and stories, the staging of advocacy, excessive narrations or the silencing of narrative voices constitute central (literary) techniques that have been used as poetological approaches to poverty. Comparing a variety of contemporary novels, I focus on the poor person's "incorporation without introjection and without assimilation" (Derrida) and the status of the "integrated outsider" (Simmel), which becomes visible when looking at the novel's literary depictions of space(s).
The project looks at European traditions of representing poverty such as voluntary poverty, the imperative for charity, mysticism, taking into account selected modern texts by Baudelaire, Rilke, and Hamsun. With a focus on recent processes of globalization, I map out how the metaphorical and/or 'real' spaces assigned to the poor have been altered within the last century. Is it possible to narrate poverty? Are there different modes of representation used to describe 'relative poverty' compared to 'absolute poverty' and is it possible for 'the poor' to represent themselves by literary means? Can literature express a critique of the present capitalist market when it is traded as a commodity on the same market? My project aims to address these questions drawing back on postcolonial theory, theory of space and new economic criticism.

Publications

"Writing (for) the Market. Narratives of the Global Economy." In: Franziska Jekel-Twittmann, Anna-Katharina Krüger and Myriam-Naomi Walburg (eds.): Writing (for) the Market. Narratives of the Global Economy. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, 2020. p. 7-24.

"Marketing the Crisis. Figurations of Aesthetics and Economics in Marlene Streeruwitz' Novels Nachkommen. and Die Reise einer jungen Anarchistin in Griechenland." In: Jekel, Franziska, Anna-Katharina Krüger und Myriam-Naomi Walburg (eds.): Writing (for) the Market. Narratives of the Global Economy. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, 2019. p. 83-110.

"Zwischenwelten. Raum, Identität und Herkunft in Miriam Steins Berlin – Seoul – Berlin". In: Miriam Kanne (ed.): Provisorische und Transiträume. Raumerfahrung 'Nicht-Ort', Berlin: LIT, 2013, p. 151-170.

with Nina Peter: "Seing (the) eyes of the other. Images of the poor in Charles Baudelaire and Frank McCourt". In: Veronika Bernard, Serhan Oksay (eds.): IMAGES (II). Images of the Poor, Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2013, p. 223-235.

"'Es la crisis'. Globale Märkte und erzählte Armut in Rafael Chirbes' Roman En la Orilla". In: Stiemer, Haimo, Dominic Büker und Esteban Sanchino Martinez (eds.): Social Turn? Das Soziale in der gegenwärtigen Literatur(-wissenschaft). Weilerswirst: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2017.