Leeder

Karen Leeder

Karen Leeder studied Modern Languages in Oxford and Germany before becoming a University Lecturer in German at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. She came to New College in 1993 as a Tutorial Fellow and is currently on AHRC-funded research leave 2011-13.

Teaching

She teaches across the range of the modern German course, but specialises in translation, poetry, post-1945 literature and has a particular interest in contemporary literature and culture. She has supervised a large number of graduates on topics ranging from poetry, women's writing or GDR literature to the literature of the Berlin Republic. 

Research Interests

She is currently working on several projects which address the places where poetic symbols, memory and political culture meet: a book on Lateness will appear in 2012 and she is working on a monograph on the 'Spectres of the GDR' haunting the culture of the Berlin Republic and a longer term project on the figure of the angel in modern literature, art and film.

Selected Publications

Her books include Breaking Boundaries: a new generation of poets in the GDR (OUP, 1996), two books on Brecht, two on Rilke and as editor, 'Schaltstelle': Neue deutsche Lyrik im Dialog (2007). From 'Stasiland' to 'Ostalgie': Remembering the GDR Twenty Years On, appeared in November 2009.

She also translates contemporary German poetry and prose: including, most recently After Brecht: A Celebration (Carcanet, 2006). She is on the editorial board of German Monitor, The Brecht Yearbook and Oxford German Studies and is a regular reviewer on BBC radio.

Email: karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk