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Department of Cultural Studies
COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS

Wiedersehen mit Heidi / Re-reading Heidi. Polyperspective Readings of the Heidi Novels by Johanna Spyri

Teaching, learning and publication project 2021/22

Drei Berge mit schneebedeckten Gipfeln in einem blau-weißen Kreis, der größte Berg ist in der Mitte von zwei kleinen Bergen © CC0

Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) enjoyed great success with her novel "Heidi's Years of Learning and Travel" (1880) and its sequel "Heidi Can Use What She Has Learned" (1881). Since then, the Heidi novels have been translated into around 50 languages. They are part of the Western canon of popular children's and young adult literature – like only the works of Astrid Lindgren. Numerous transformations into media formats such as feature films, TV series/anime, comics and audiobooks have followed.

Lecture series and conference

In order to trace this high connectivity and popularity of the novel and its sequel, a digital lecture series was organized in the summer semester of 2021, in which the novels and their media transformations were subjected to an updated and polyperspective reading by international scholars from various disciplines from the perspective of interdisciplinary diversity research.


The lecture series was followed by a two-day digital conference in September 2021. The responses and intensive discussions focused in particular on the methodological diversity and interdisciplinary breadth of the Heidi readings and showed that the approach of diversity research – epistemological, sociological, aesthetic, narratological – cannot be taken into account without reflecting on the interdependent and intersectional aspects.

Organizers

Professorship for Modern and Contemporary German Literature with a Focus on Gender and Diversity
Dr. Linda Leskau & Prof. Dr. Sigrid Nieberle