Prof. Dr. Jochen Petzold

Victorian Literature for Children and Young Adults

An early research interest, connected with my work on South African fiction, was the representation of Africa and Africans in nineteenth century British adventure fiction (Ballantyne, Conrad, Haggard, Henty).

In 2008, I was granted a EU-funded Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the Unviersity of Edinburgh, to examine the representation of natural science in periodicals for young readers, published between 1847 and 1900. The research project was scheduled to run for two years (2009 and 2010), but had to be terminated after 15 months when I was appointed Professor of British Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Regensburg. The data collected in Edinburgh has led to a number of publications.

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South African Literature

I started working on South African literature in the late 1990s; my main research interest was at first connected with the interdependencies of 'history' and 'identity', and it led to my doctoral thesis Re-imagining White Identity by Exploring the Past (Trier:?WVT, 2002). More recently, focus has shifted towards the representation of South Africa's cities and their 'problems' (eg. migration/immigration, violence, HIV/AIDS). Most recently, I published a biography of South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, Nadine Gordimer: Eine starke Stimme gegen die Apartheid, (that includes an introduction to her oeuvre and to South Africa's political history) on the occasion of Gordimer's centenary in 2023.

Genre Theory / Theory of Poetry

In my Habilitationsschrift, Sprechsituationen lyrischer Dichtung: Ein Beitrag zur Gattungstypologie (Würzburg:?K?nigshausen &?Neumann, 2013), I use an approach based on cognitive science to examine genre theory, more specifically the theory of (lyrical) poetry. In connection with this research theme, I was awarded funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a project examining the speaker position in a large selection of poems written in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The?final report can be downloaded as a pdf (in German).

More recently, my interest in poetic genres has led to the publication of A History of the Sonnet in England: "A little world made cunningly" (Berlin: Schmidt, 2022).

List of Publications

A.???Books

Nadine Gordimer: Eine starke Stimme geegen die Apartheid. Darmstadt: wbg Theiss,
???? 2023.

A History of the Sonnet in England: "A little world made cunningly". Berlin: Erich
???? Schmidt Verlag, 2022.

Sprechsituationen lyrischer Dichtung: Ein Beitrag zur Gattungstypologie.
???? ZAA Monographs. Würzburg: K?nigshausen & Neumann, 2012.

Re-imagining White Identity by Exploring the Past: History in South African Novels
???? of the 1990s. Studies in English Literary Cultural History 5. Trier: WVT,
???? 2002.

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B.???Articles

"From Depoliticising Burns to Trumpeting the Revolution: Ferdinand Freiligrath and
???? the Reception of Robert Burns in Germany." The Meeting of Scotland and Europe.
???? Ed. Aniela Korzeniowska and Izabela Szymanska. Warszwa: Semper, 2024.
???? 131-144.

"Ballantyne 'on the Rocks'. The Arctic as Adventure-Arena." What is North? Imagining
???? and Representing the North from Ancient Times to the Present Day. Ed. Oisín
???? Plumb, Alexandra Sanmark, Donna Heddle. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020. 227-243.

"A Girl's Own Empire? Imperialism and the Girl's Own Paper, 1880 to 1903." Imperial
???? Middlebrow. Ed. Christoph Ehland and Jana Gohrisch. Leiden: Brill, 2020. 22-43.

"Victorian Gendered Photography in the Boy's Own Paper and the Girl's Own Paper."
???? Victorian Periodicals Review 52.1 (2019): 57-79.

"'What is there that women cannot do?': Ambiguities of Gender, Genre, and Repre-
???? sentation in 'Our Tour in Norway,' a Travelogue in the Girl's Own Paper." Victorian
???? Periodicals Review 51.3 (2018): 539-557.

"'A dialogue I'll tell you as true as my life': Formen und Funktionen des Dialogs in der
???? englischen Stra?enballade." Das Dialoggedicht / Dialogue Poems. Ed. Christina
???? Johanna Bischoff, Till Kinzel, Jarmila Mildorf. Heidelberg: Winter, 2017. 243-258.

"Whose Hillbrow? Xenophobia and the Urban Space in the 'New' South Africa."
???? Contested Communities: Communication, Narration, Imagination. Ed. Susanne
???? Mühleisen. ASNEL Papers 21. Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2017. 171-186.

"Anti-Slavery Discourse in Three Adventure Stories by R.M. Ballantyne." Empires and
???? Revolutions: Cunninghame Graham and His Contemporaries. Ed. Carla Sassie and
???? Silke Stroh. Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, 2017. 32-46.

"Constructing and Deconstructing the Fantasy Hero: Joe Abercrombie's 'First Law'
???? Trilogy." Heroes and Heroism in British Fiction Since 1800. Ed. Barbara Korte &
???? Stefanie Lethbridge. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 135-150.

"'I'm not going.' Questions of Home and Society in Nadine Gordimer's No Time
???? Like the Present." Anglistentag 2015, Paderborn: Proceedings. Ed. Christoph
???? Ehland, Ilka Mindt and Merle T?nnies. Trier: WVT, 2016. 67-76.

"Chains of Voices: Multiperspectivity and Historical 'Truth' in Three Novels by
???? André Brink." English in Africa 43.1 (2016): 87-100.

"Inventing the Victorian Boy: S.O Beeton's The Boy's Own Magazine." The Making
???? of English Popular Culture. Ed. John Storey. Abington: Routledge, 2016.
???? 76-89.

"Laughing at Racism or Laughing with the Racists? The 'Indian Comedy' of
???? Goodness Gracious Me." British TV Comedies: Cultural Concepts, Contexts and
???? Controversies. Ed. Jürgen Kamm & Birgit Neumann. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2016.
???? 185-196.

"Raising Ghosts or Laying Them to Rest? Ghost Stories in Two Victorian Magazines
???? for 'Boys'." Geister: Einblicke in das Unsichtbare. Ed. Dieter Petzold. Inklings:
???? Jahrbuch für Literatur und ?sthetik 33. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2016. 27-40.

"'Making it Fit': The Appropriation of Poe in Boy's Own Magazine." The Edgar Allan
???? Poe Review 16.2 (2015): 155-168.

"Dystopia of Reproduction: P.D. James, The Children of Men (1992) and Alfonso
???? Cuarón, Children of Men (2006)." Dystopia, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalypse:
???? Classics - New Tendencies - Model Interpretations. Ed. Eckart Voigts and
???? Alessandra Boller. Trier: WVT, 2015. 333-345.

"It's Not Cruel, It's Science! The Re-Invention of Bird-Nesting in Late Victorian
???? Juvenile Culture." Anglistentag 2013 Konstanz: Proceedings. Ed. Silvia Mergen-
???? thal & Reingard Nischik. Trier: WVT, 2014. 9-19.

"'How like us is that ugly brute, the ape!': Darwin's 'Ape Theory' and Its Traces in
???? Victorian Children's Magazines." Reflecting on Darwin. Ed. Eckart Voigts, Barbara
???? Schaff and Monika Pietrzak-Franger. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. 57-71.

"'Are You Learning to Grow Old?': 'Aging Well' with the Help of The Girl's Own
???? Paper, 1880 to 1900." Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Aging in Nineteenth-
???? Century Culture. Ed. Katharina Boehm, Anna Farkas, and Anne-Julia Zwierlein.
???? London: Routledge, 2014. 147-164.

"Mr Gorilla, the 'Lion of the Season': Die Britische Gorilla-Manie im Spiegel
???? Viktorianischer Kinderliteratur." Animalia in fabula:?Interdisziplin?re Gedanken
???? über das Tier in der Sprache, Literatur und Kultur. Ed. Miorita Ulrich und
???? Dina De Rentiis. Bamberg:?University of Bamberg Press, 2013. 179-198.

"The Victorian Debate on Science Education and the Case of 'Robina Crusoe'."
???? Anglistentag 2011 Freiburg: Proceedings. Ed. Monika Fludernik and
???? Benjamin Kohlmann. Trier: WVT, 2012. 353-364.

"John Gay's Polly and the Politics of 'Colonial Pastoral'." Zeitschrift für Anglistik
???? und Amerikanistik 60.2 (2012):107-120.

"Polly Peachum, a 'Model of Virtue'? Questions of Morality in John Gay's Polly."
???? Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 35.3 (2012): 343-357.

"'The end was not ignoble'? Bird-Nesting Between Cruelty, Manliness and Science
???? Education in British Children's Periodicals, 1850-1900." Time o