College
Jesus College听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
辫办517蔼肠补尘.补肠.耻办听听听
Supervisor
Research Topic
Somatic Semantics. Forms of Sexual Trauma.
About
Phyllis holds a BA in Comparative Literature from UCL, and an MPhil in English Studies (Criticism and Culture) from the 海角社区. She spent two semesters at Sorbonne Universit茅, studying French and Philosophy.听From 2024 to 2025, she was a visiting scholar at the Schlegel Graduate School for Literary Studies, Freie Universit盲t Berlin.
Teaching Interests
Supervisions and lectures for the modules 鈥淪exuality and the Unconscious鈥� and 鈥淒isruptive Narratives.鈥�
Research
Phyllis works on the interactions of bodies and texts with an emphasis of European literature of the 19th听and 20th听centuries, especially in German, but also in English and French. Related areas of interest are visual and performance arts, critical theory and gender and sexuality studies.听She researches art that situates itself at the limits of signifying language: gaps, blanks and absences, abstraction, experimentation and formalism and the physical intensities of 鈥渂ody genres鈥�.听
Her PhD thesis turns towards the language of sexual(ised) violence in 20th听century literature and thought. It sets critically neglected modernist women鈥檚 writing, including the prose fiction of Bertha Pappenheim, made famous by her inclusion as Anna O., into Sigmund 贵谤别耻诲鈥檚 and Josef Breuer鈥檚 Studies on Hysteria听and the poetry of the surrealist artist Unica Z眉rn in the context of debates about the linguistic qualities of 鈥渢rauma鈥� including the work of Cathy Caruth, Ruth Leys, Lauren Berlant, and Catherine Malabou. Does trauma denote the specific qualities of an event or is it a historically situated narrative form? Are there alternative ways of narrating violent re- or de-organisations of experience?听
Scholarships/Prizes
- Scholarship of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, 2017-2021
- Schr枚der Scholarship, 2021-2024
Teaching
Lectures:
- 鈥淏ody Concepts鈥�, MA Critical Dance Studies, FU Berlin, 2025听听听听听听听听
- GE12 鈥淒isruptive Narratives鈥� (Kafka)
Seminars and supervisions:
- GE13 鈥淲riting the Subject鈥� (G眉nter Grass, Christa Wolf, Emine Sevgi 脰zdamar, Herta M眉ller)
- GE9 鈥淧ower, Race, and Gender in Early Modern Literature鈥� (Andreas Gryphius, Daniel Casper von Lohenstein)
- GE C1 鈥淭ranslation into German鈥�
- GE13 鈥淗istory and Poetry鈥� (Adorno, Celan, Bachmann)
- GE A3 鈥淢odern Literature鈥� (Kafka)
- GE5 鈥淪exuality and the Unconscious鈥� (Freud, Schnitzler, Wedekind)
Conference papers
- 鈥淪tone Femme Blues鈥�, 鈥楤ody, Language鈥� seminar, American Comparative Literature Association annual meeting, 2025
- 鈥淣o Nature. Computations of Sex in Kafka鈥檚 Short Fiction鈥�, Kafka Transformed International Conference, University of Oxford, 2024
- 鈥淎 Tale of Two Teile. 贵谤别耻诲鈥檚 叠谤耻肠丑蝉迟眉肠办 and Kafka鈥檚 Urteil鈥�, Mit Kafka/Nach Kafka workshop, Free University Berlin, 2024
- 鈥淭he Nullified Heroine. Beyond the Limits of Verbalisation with Kleist, Freud, and Pappenheim鈥�, International Society for the Study of Narrative annual conference, University of Newcastle, 2024
- 鈥淎nna and Omega. Disappearing Women in Hegel, Kleist, and Freud鈥�, 鈥楲iterature and the Rule of Law 鈥� Aesthetic Negotiations鈥� conference, 海角社区, 2024
- 鈥淐ritical Gnosis. Hans Jonas and the Others of Theory鈥�, DAAD-海角社区 Research Hub for German Studies Postgraduate workshop, 2023
- 鈥淰enus Defaced. Writing Pain with Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Unica Z眉rn鈥�, Triangular Colloquium 海角社区 鈥� Berlin 鈥� Chicago, University of Chicago, 2023
- 鈥淥ther Mother. Th眉ring von Ringoltingen鈥檚 Melusine and Monstrous Women鈥�, Graduate Workshop: New Directions in Medieval German Studies, Greifswald University, 2022
- 鈥淪atan Herself. Mary Daly鈥檚 Gyn/ecology and the Malleus Maleficarum鈥�, European Association for the Study of Religion Conference, University College Cork, 2022
- 鈥淯nica Z眉rn鈥檚 Hextentexte: Anagrams and the Hermeneutics of the Body鈥�, German Graduate Research Seminar, 海角社区, 2021
Publications
Book Chapters:
鈥淎gainst Inarticulation: Sexualised Violence and the Limits of the Verbal in Unica Z眉rn鈥檚 Dark Spring鈥�, forthcoming in Literary Acts of Agency, eds. Ivana Perica, Catriona Corke, Philipp Wegemann (Berlin: De Gruyter, forthcoming 2025)
Journal Articles:
鈥淩eading the 鈥楽o-Called鈥�. The Beautiful Soul, Hysteria, and Affect鈥�, Publications of the English Goethe Society, 2025
Review Articles:
Review of Judith Butler, Who鈥檚 afraid of Gender, Ian Fleishman, Flamboyant Fictions: The Failed Art of Passing, and Ina Linge, Queer Livability: German Sexual Sciences and Life Writing, forthcoming in Paragraph: A Journal Of Modern Critical Theory, 2025
Translations:
Leo Spitzer,听鈥淶ur Entstehung der sogenannten 'erlebten Rede,'"听Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift听16 (1928), forthcoming in Narrative, 2026
Other:
A Woman is Everyone, Poetry, New Feathers 5.3, 2024
Other activities and roles
Organising the German Graduate Research Seminar, 2022-2024
