Geert Crauwels obtained a PhD in German literary studies in 2010 at the Catholic University of Louvain (KU Leuven). The subject of his doctoral research concerned the literary reflection of childhood and youth experiences in the former GDR between 1971 and 1989 (‘Und der Zukunft zugewandt.’ Abschied von Kindheit und Jugend in der Ex-DDR-Literatur. Drei diskursive Lesarten.). From 2011 to 2013 he taught at the department of German Language and Culture at Leiden University. Currently, he is lecturer in German translation studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and lecturer in German literary studies at the University of Antwerp. He has published on contemporary German literature and authoritarian and totalitarian discourses. His interests include the literature of the former GDR, the relationship between ideology, language and power structures and its representation in contemporary German literature. Further research will focus on the translational component in its wider sense: as the intercultural transfer in the works of contemporary German authors with a so-called migration background. The triad of borders and their (cultural) crossings, norms and normalisation and, finally, literary auto-reflectivity will constitute the nucleus of this research.

Contact: geert.crauwels@vub.be