Global Humanities Junior Research and Teaching Stay at Harvard
June - September 2014

The Renaissance Family As an Institution of Knowledge Transfer

Christina Schaefer’s current research focuses on the Renaissance family as an institution of knowledge transfer. The project seeks to elaborate on the rhetorical and literary strategies used by vernacular texts of various genres to regulate the production, conservation, transmission, and transformation of knowledge in and about the family. Texts of interest are treatises, dialogues, libri di famiglia, ricordanze, letters, etc. surrounding the thematic fields of marriage, the education of children, housekeeping etc. and reflecting the transmission of knowledge in the family. The project investigates the intertwinings of rhetorical and literary codes on the one hand and social habits on the other hand.

Christina Schaefer is a postdoctoral research and teaching assistant for French and Italian Literatures at Freie Universitaet Berlin. She holds a doctoral degree in Romance literatures. In her 2012 dissertation, Konstruktivismus und Roman, she investigates the epistemological aspects of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s New Novel and their relationship to constructivist epistemological theories. Her research focuses on contemporary literature, with a special interest in autofictional writing, and Renaissance literature.