English and Creative Writing

Photo of Professor Ulrike Zitzlsperger

Professor Ulrike Zitzlsperger

Associate Professor in German

U.C.Zitzlsperger@exeter.ac.uk

4346

01392 724346

Overview

I joined the University of Exeter (German/Modern Languages) after working for the local government and a publishing house in 1990s Berlin/Germany. Berlin, its culture and its history, in particular during the interwar years, remains one of my main research interests. Other topics include the role of hotels, railway stations and department stores in the 19th and 20th centuries, metropolitan tourism and souvenirs (for example of the Berlin Wall).

Much of my teaching reflects these interests; I teach in all years of undergraduate studies, teach on a variety of MAs and have supervised PhD students.

I have a wide portfolio of administrative experience on University and Departmental level, most recently as Admissions Officer and Schools- and Widening Participation Coordinator for Modern Languages and Cultures.

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Research

My research interests include the culture and literature of twentieth-century Berlin with a particular focus on the interwar period and the 1990s. Aspects include the role of city myths, literary and autobiographical perceptions of the city, film and photography reflecting public spaces in periods of transition, topographical shifts within the cityscape and the interface between architecture, town-planning and literature. Publications also consider a variety of individual authors such as Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Tucholsky, Georg Hermann, Heinrich Mann, Joseph Roth, Mynona, Georg Hermann, and Peter Schneider, and particular themes, such as hotels, department stores, railway stations (so-called semi-public spaces) or the role of 'Heimat' in European literature. 

More recent research interests include the cultural role of souvenirs - for example how the Berlin Wall has been turned into a consumer phenomena since 1989, how museum shops develop their own historical narratives or how nostalgia and souvenirs are closely linked together. Current projects consider the role of metropolitan tourism and, together with Chloe Paver, the touristic and commemorative pathways that dominate the modern city-scape. 

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Supervision

Postgraduate Supervision: Sole supervisor of numerous MA, MPhil and MRes theses, also including dissertations in translation studies.

Four succesful PhD candidates (two AHRC funded, two funded by Modern Languages bursaries).

Currently one co-supervision in Creative Writing.

Research students

Graduated research students:

Dr Marjorie Gehrhardt

Dr Frances Mossop

Dr Esme Nicholson

Dr Isaure Triby

Current research students:

Suzanne Baronin von Engelhardt (co-supervision; Creative Writing)

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| To Appear | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2001 |

To Appear

  • Zitzlsperger UC. 'The sights these eyes have seen ...'/Review, THE, no. March 2011, pages 56-57.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. Review, THE, volume 1981, pages 55-55.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. Berlin, Times Higher Education, no. 2-8 July, pages 50-51.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. 'People Power' and the Wall's Fall, THE, no. 5-11 November 2009, pages 21-21.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. Berlin, Times Higher Education, no. 30 April _ 6 May 2009, pages 53-53.

2025

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2025) 'Blumen vorne und Muellkute hinten': Gerueche als topographische und gesellschaftliche Wegweiser durch Berlin im 19. Jahrhundert, Geruch und Literatur. Studien zu deutschsprachigen Texten des 19. Jahrhunderts, De Gruyter / Duesseldorf University Press.
  • Zitzlsperger U. (2025) Destination Metropolis: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries, Tourism and/in the Metropolis, Westminster University Press.

2024

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2024) Ecce Animalia: Ueber das (Mit)Leiden der Tiere (Otto Dix und Klaus Staeck), Text und Kritik, volume 13.
  • Zitzlsperger U. (2024) "Heimat" in den Berlinromanen Georg Hermanns, "Vom gesicherten und ungesicherten Leben". Neue Perspektiven auf das Werk von Georg Hermann, Wallstein, 15-33.
  • Zitzlsperger U. (2024) (Unterhaltungs)Werte und Zeitgeschichte: Die Woche, Kulturwissenschaftliche Zeitung.

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2018) German Studies: Literature, 1945–1990, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 78, no. 1, pages 410-416, DOI:10.1163/22224297-07801035.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2018) AugenBlicke. Zur Wahrnehmung Berlins in den zwanziger Jahren, Expressionismus, pages 93-104.

2017

  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2017) Versachlichung, Verdinglichung und die Auseinandersetzung mit der Metropole Berlin, Sache / Ding. Eine aesthetische Leitdifferenz in der Medienkultur der Weimarer Republik, edition text + kritik.

2016

2015

  • Weiss-Sussex G, Zitzlsperger U. (2015) Konsum Und Imagination - Tales of Commerce and Imagination Das Warenhaus Und Die Moderne in Film Und Literatur - Department Stores and Modernity in Film and Literature.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2015) Ein Gespraech mit Volker Kutscher: "Etwas monumental Faszinierendes": Das Warenhaus in der Kriminalliteratur, Konsum und Imagination / Tales of Commerce and Imagination, Peter Lang, 315-319.
  • Zitzlsperger UC, Weiss-Sussex G. (2015) Einfuehrung, Konsum und Imagination / Tales of Commerce and Imagination, Peter Lang, 9-19.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2015) Stadt- und Weltbilder: Das Berliner Warenhaus als kolossale Erscheinung im Feuilleton der Zwischenkriegszeit, Konsum und Imagination / Tales of Commerce and Imagination, Peter Lang, 185-200.
  • Jaeger C, Lindemann U, Hohnstraeter D, Meyer F, Weiss-Sussex G, Linge I, Spreizer C, Schonfield E, Duecker B, Hughes J. (2015) Konsum und Imagination / Tales of Commerce and Imagination, Peter Lang.

2014

2013

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2013) German Studies: Literature, 1945 to 1990, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 75, no. 1, pages 476-486, DOI:10.1163/2222-4297-90000974.
  • Weiss-Sussex Zitzlsperger Briesen Spiekermann Lenz MagShamhrain Lerner Wallach Kasiske Rooch Sierschynski Bienert Mueller. (2013) Das Berliner Warenhaus: Geschichte und Diskurse / The Berlin Department Store: History and Discourse, Lang.

2012

  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2012) Going Places: Arts and Literature in Hotels and Railway Stations, The International Journal of the Arts in Society.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2012) Alemannische Judendoerfer und oberschwaebischer Katholizismus: Die Kulturlandschaften Jacob Picards (1883-1967) und Maria Mueller-Goeglers (1900-1987), Wechselwirkungen II. Deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur im regionalen und internationalen Kontext, Praesens, 91-102.

2011

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2011) German Studies: The Sixteenth Century, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 73, no. 1, pages 334-340, DOI:10.1163/2222-4297-90000867.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2011) Hans Sachs (1494-1576): Writing the Perfect City, Intellectual Communities and Partnerships in Italy and Europe, Lang, 36-41.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2011) The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies: The Sixteenth Century, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 71 (2009), pages 628-639.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2011) Cafehaeuser, Bahnhoefe und Hotels: Zur Bedeutung der halboeffentlichen Raeume im Werk Joseph Roths, Joseph Roth. Europaisch-judischer Schriftsteller und osterreichischer Universalist, De Gruyter, 55-67.

2010

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2010) German Studies: The Sixteenth Century, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 72, no. 1, pages 400-408, DOI:10.1163/2222-4297-90000826.
  • Zitzlsperger U. (2010) Review, Times Higher Education, pages 48-49.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2010) Die Erotik der Macht: Zum Geschlechterverhaeltnis in ausgewaehlten Werken Heinrich Manns, Mynonas und Curt Corrinths, Expressionism and Gender / Expressionismus und Geschlecht, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 145-181.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2010) Martin Luther - Rebel, Genius, Liberator: Politics and Marketing 1517-2017, Memorialization in Germany since 1945, Palgrave Macmillan, 341-350.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2010) 'Warum soll nicht das Wort vom Leben Zeugnis geben?' Georg Hermanns Biedermeierwelt in Jettchen Gebert (1906) und Henriette Jacoby (1908), Patterns of Knowledge in the 19th Xentury, MV Wissenschaft, 239-258.

2009

2008

  • Zitzlsperger U. (2008) German Studies: The Sixteenth Century, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 70, no. 1, pages 604-616, DOI:10.1163/22224297-90003713.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2008) Bertolt Brecht: Stadtraum und Architektur, Verwisch die Spuren. Bertolt Brecht's Work and Legacy, Rodopi, 141-151.

2007

  • Zitzlsperger DLWU. (2007) Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Germany (2007); The A to Z of Contemporary Germany (2010).
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2007) Berlin. Kultur und Metropole in den zwanziger und seit den neunziger Jahren, Iudicium.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2007) Die Bebilderung der Stadt. Berliner Feuilletons, Kolumnen und Reportagen, Berlin. Kultur und Metropole in den zwanziger und seit den neunziger Jahren, Iudicium, 78-96.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2007) ZeitGeschichten: Die Berliner Übergangsjahre. Zur Verortung der Stadt nach der Mauer, Lang.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2007) Einfuehrung, Berlin. Kultur und Metropole in den zwanziger und seit den neunziger Jahren, Iudicium, 9-27.
  • Zitzlsperger UC, Susanne Goga. (2007) Ulrike Zitzlsperger im Gespraech mit Susanne Goga: '... Wer sich mit den zwanziger Jahren in Deutschland beschaeftigt, landet automatisch in Berlin.', Berlin. Kultur und Metropole in den zwanziger und seit den neunziger Jahren, Iudicium, 248-256.

2006

  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2006) Women's identity and Authoritarian Force: Women Pamphleteers of the German Reformation, Violence, Culture and Identity. Essays on German and Austrian Literature, Politics and Society, Lang, 65-83.

2005

  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2005) Caught between two Eras: Georg Kaiser's The Silver Lake, Georg Kaiser and Modernity, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 123-140.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2005) Kurt Tucholsky - Die entzauberte Stadt, Vienna meets Berlin: Cultural Interaction 1918-1933, Peter Lang, 139-153.
  • Zitzlsperger, UC, Warren, J. (2005) Vienna meets Berlin. Culture in the Metropolis 1918-1938, Lang.

2004

  • Zitzlsperger, U.. (2004) Guides to the City: Berlin Anthologies, Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, volume 28, no. 4, pages 96-125.
  • Zitzlsperger, U.. (2004) Städte in der Stadt: Berliner Erfahrungsräume, Seminar, pages 277-292.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2004) Berlin als soziales Umfeld im Werk Georg Hermanns, Georg Hermann. Deutsch-jüdischer Schriftsteller und Journalist, 1871-1943, Niemeyer, 41-56.

2003

  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2003) Mother, Martyr and Mary Magdalene - German Female Pamphleteers and their Self-images, History, volume 88, no. 291, pages 379-392, DOI:10.1111/1468-229X.00268.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2003) Filling the Blanks: Berlin as a Public Showcase, Recasting German Identity, Camden House, 41-56.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2003) A Worm's Eye View and a Bird's Eye View: Culture and Politics in Berlin since 1989, Politics and Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany, Camden House, 185-199.

2001

  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2001) Mythos Berlin: Die Veranschaulichung der Moderne, Berlin Wien Prag. Moderne, Minderheiten und Migration in der Zwischenkriegszeit, Lang, 27-43.
  • Zitzlsperger UC. (2001) Berlin since 1989: Politics and Culture in the Capital, Contemporary Germany, Arnold, 251-280.

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Teaching

All my modules are inspired by my research. This informs the lectures and the discussions in our seminars. MLG2018 (Berlin) and MLG3037 (Coping with Catastrophe), for example, reflect my long-term work on the German metropolis and the Interwar Years in particular. Other topics, such as the role of hotels, department stores and tourism, feed into the majority of the modules. SML3041 (Green Matters in Modern Languages and Cultures) is a team-taught module that focusses, based on expertise across Modern Languages, on topical environmental concerns and the Humanities' responses to such challenges.

My language teaching is informed by a combination of linguistic and intercultural skills.

Modules taught

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More information

Conferences Organised (since 2001)

  • December 2001 Co-organisation with John Warren (Oxford) of conference on ‘Vienna-Berlin-London. Culture in the Metropolis between the Wars', Germanic Institute London.
    This international conference formed part of ‘Vienna-Berlin-London: Trails of Creativity 1918-1938', a cultural season under the umbrella of the Austrian Cultural Forum, London. Further contributions included an exhibition of 1920s and 1930s paintings in the Atelier Gallery (Exeter University) and a one-day conference in co-operation with the WEA Exeter.
  • July 2004 Co-organisation with Godela Weiss-Sussex of conference on ‘Aufbrüche zur Metropole: Berliner Kultur in den zwanziger Jahren und heute.' (Berlin Culture in the 1920s and Today) at Exeter University.

Conference Papers (since 2001)

  • ‘Kurt Tucholsky: Die entzauberte Stadt'
    December 2001 at the Germanic Institute London, conference on ‘Vienna-Berlin-London. Culture in the Metropolis between the Wars'
  • ‘Berlin als soziales Umfeld im Werk Georg Hermanns'
    September 2001, Germanic Insitute, London, conference on ‘Georg Hermann'
  • ‘Aussenseiter in der Metropole: Die alternative Erschließung Berlins seit 1989'
    July 2002, Nottingham Trent University, conference on ‘Difference in Contemporary Germany'
  • ‘Gender, Force and Society in the Early Modern Period'
    July 2003, University of St Andrews, conference on ‘Representations of Violence'
  • ‘Georg Kaisers Der Silbersee'
    December 2003, Germanic Institute, London, conference on ‘Georg Kaiser'
  • ‘Remake Berlin'
    July 2004 at Exeter University, conference on ‘Aufbrüche zur Metropole: Berliner Kultur in den zwanziger Jahren und heute' (Berlin Culture in the 1920s and Today)
  • ‘Brecht und Berlin'
    February 2006, Germanic Institute, London, conference on ‘Bertolt Brecht. A Re-assessment'
  • ‘Fools and Court-Culture: Counter Performances'
    July 2006, Leeds University, ‘International Medieval Conference'
  • ‘The Fool and Political Culture, 1515-1995'
    July 2007, Goldsmiths University London, ‘International Folly Conference'
  • ‘A Day at the Museum: Literary Reflections on Museums'
    June 2008, Leiden/Holland, international conference on ‘The Inclusive Museum'
  • ‘"Warum soll nicht das Wort vom Leben Zeugnis geben?" Georg Hermann's Biedermeier-World in Jettchen Gebert (1906) and Henriette Jacoby (1908)'
    September 2008, Exeter, Symposium on ‘Patterns of Knowledge in the 19th Century'
  • ‘Die (Ohn)Macht der Frauen'. Heinrich Manns Der Untertan', London, international conference on Expressionism and Gender
  • ‘Cafehäuser, Bahnhöfe und Hotels. Zur Bedeutung der halböffentlichen Räume im Werk Joseph Roths', Ljubljana, international conference on Joseph Roth
  • ‘Die zwanziger Jahre; Geschichte und Marketing', London (Cumberland Lodge/DAAD)
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