Mittwoch, 05.11.2025
Im Gespräch mit... Wibke Schniedermann: "Narrating Homelessness Between Mobility and Domesticity: Roads, Streets, Tunnels"
17:15 - 18:45 Uhr
Seminarraum 14, Ágnes-Heller-Haus, Innrain 52a, 6020 Innsbruck
Anmeldung ist erforderlich; Anmeldung beim Veranstalter bis 04.11.25
Eintritt / Kosten: Keine
Vortragende/r
Wibke Schniedermann
Wibke Schniedermann ist Gastprofessorin für anglophone Literatur an der Universität Gent. In ihrer Habilitationsschrift in amerikanischer Literatur-, Kutlur- und Medienwisssenschaft (Universität Gießen, 2025) beschäftigt sie sich mit Erzählungen von Obdachlosigkeit in der US-amerikanischen Kultur vom späten 19. bis ins 21. Jahrhundert.
Weitere Informationen
The current homelessness emergency in the US is one of the most persistent social crises of the twenty-first century. This talk turns to the discursive and affective meanings with which American culture invests the social reality of homelessness. The meanings, connotations, and images of “being homeless” do not reflect the current reality but are rooted in a century and a half of telling stories about unhoused lives—stories that began to sentimentalize, victimize, or heroize the homeless long ago. Many of these stories negotiate between two fundamental American values, mobility and domesticity. We will consider examples from different media to discuss how such stories position their homeless characters within the domesticity-mobility continuum. These positions correspond to three topographic and architectural spaces within which American narratives of homelessness place their characters: roads, streets, and tunnels. Each topography is defined by the specific tension it generates between mobility and domesticity.
Veranstalter
Forschungsschwerpunkt Kulturelle Begegnungen - Kulturelle Konflikte