Global Humanities Junior Research and Teaching Stay at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

September 2015 – January 2016

Concepts of Text and Scripture in Early Modern Drama

Sven Thorsten Kilian’s project focuses questions applying to the theoretical field of the archaeology of concepts of text and scripture, acting on the hypothesis that both drama and print brought along considerable changes not only in technical terms but also, and maybe in an even more comprehensive way, with regard to subjacent theoretical matters. The joint consideration of these two phenomena – bringing together media history and the history of ideas – opens a new perspective on the history of European early modern drama.

Sven Thorsten Kilian is a postdoctoral fellow of the ERC-funded DramaNet project. He was trained in French Studies and Comparative Literature and was an Assistant Professor at Potsdam University where he earned a doctoral degree in Romance Philology. His main research interests are narratives, drama and philosophy of the early modern period, aesthetic theories and 20th century narratives. Amongst other publications he is the author of Die Szene des Erzählens. Ereignishaftes Sprechen in Bagatelles pour un massacre, Guignol’s band und Féerie pour une autre fois von Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Munich 2012).