Mag. Katharina Martl

Dissertation Abstract

The project claims the relevance of a notion of strangeness (foreignness? Alienness? Otherness? The choice of the appropriate equivalent to the German "fremd" or the Norwegian/Danish/Swedish "fremmed"/"främmande" already hints one of the undertaking's manifold issues) reworked against the backdrop of processes of globalization based on modern Scandinavian texts (19th and 20th Century), in particular by Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Knut Hamsun and Johannes V. Jensen. The choice of time frame originates in the observation that the 19th Century is a historical phase in which different processes of globalization in the sense of intensifying global networking and interdependence already play a central role, thus the significance of the literature of this period. Specifically literary conceptions and constructions found in the primary literature will be used to drive forth the theoretical study of both strangeness and globalization. The project draws on two scientific areas already extensively treated. On the one hand theories of globalization – which has recently been predestined as a central category by a variety of disciplines – , on the other hand the engagement with strangeness especially on the fields of philosophy and sociology. Serving a multi-faceted engagement in the relationship between strangeness and globalization, I seek to juxtapose aforementioned theories and primary texts in a productive way, the crucial challenge being an interconnection of existing theories as well as literature and theory. Although both globalization theory and theories of strangeness have an enormous quantitative and qualitative complexity, they have rarely been discussed explicitly as one complex. Since however the construction and staging of strangeness plays such an important role in processes of globalization (Globalization as a multiplication of different orders and hence strangeness(es)?) – and due to the political and ideological force of the notion of strangeness (especially the stranger) – I deem it most important to explore the extent to which the two spheres are able to shed light on each other and what a Xenology of Globalization might look like.

Short CV

Since 2015 PhD Candidate at the Research Training Group

2013-2014: Research Student at the Research Training Group

2014: Magister Artium Nordic Philology, Comparative Literature and Philosophy, LMU Munich