Nicola Kopf
Nicola Kopf
Nicola Kopf is a project assistant of the research platform's PhD Program "Cultural Mobility Studies" (FWF) since October 1st, 2019.
PhD Thesis:
Moments and Countermoments of Acceleration in Contemporary German-Language Literature.
Research interests
- Contemporary German Language Literature
- Current Discourses on Acceleration and Deceleration
- Theories about Space, Movement and Time
Curriculum vitae
Studies of German Philology and Psychology/Philosophy at the University of Vienna with a semester abroad at Trinity College, Dublin (2016) and employment as tutor and writing mentor at the Institute of German Studies; diploma thesis: Innere und äußere Bewegung in Ingeborg Bachmanns Erzählband Das dreißigste Jahr (2019).
Project outline
Drawing on a modern paradigm of acceleration (Rosa 2005) the planned dissertation project focuses on literary forms and representations of movement that are opposed to a cultural dynamic of speed. It will investigate moments of deceleration, which manifest themselves in contemporary literary works as specific figurations of slowness and create narrative spaces on the level of content and language.
The project will deal with motifs such as pausing, walking (away) or escaping from daily time pressures and examine alternative spatio-temporal localisations in selected literary examples. This perspective suggests a kind of ‘performativity of different paces’ which influences the narrative structure of space, movement and time and highlight their aesthetic relation.
Following the interdisciplinary discourse on ‘acceleration’ and ‘deceleration’, the thesis reflects on the role of literature in such discourses and how it responds to differing positions. Literature does not only provide an aesthetic space in which time is an essential narrative tool, but it is also a contemporary medium, capturing, reflecting and (re-)constructing present cultural phenomena.