Dr. Torsten König

© CFF

Research Associate|Academ. Coordinator CFF|Academic Advisor BA/MA

Name

Dr. phil. Torsten König

Institute of Romance Studies

Send email

Send encrypted email via the SecureMail portal (for TUD external users only).

Contact Information

Organization Name

Institute of Romance Studies

Institute of Romance Studies

Address work

Visiting address:

W48, Room 4.15 Wiener Straße 48

01219 Dresden

Show map of this location.

Address postal

Postal address:

TUD Dresden University of Technology Fakultät SLK
Institut für Romanistik

01062 Dresden

work Tel.

Office hours:

Office hours Tue, 3-5 p.m. by appointment by e-mail. Online consultation individually by appointment by e-mail.

News

Office Hours for the Winter Semester 2026/27: In-person office hours: Mon, 4:30–5:30 p.m., Wed, 3:00–5:00 p.m., W 48, Room 4.15 (by email appointment) or open online office hours by appointment via email in the Virtual Office

Current Courses in the Winter Semester 2026/27:

Please check the Opal pages for your courses before the semester begins to learn about the exact procedures and organizational arrangements for the courses:

Introductory Lecture: Introduction to the Literary and Cultural History of France / Italy

Seminar: Reading the Classics: French and Francophone Literatures from the 17th to the 21st Century

Seminar: A History of France in 14 Objects

Seminar: Methodology Seminar: Cultural Studies Film Analysis—French Film History

Current Events in Public Spaces:

Information on the lecture “Global Romanticism?” Cultural Studies Perspectives on the Painter Raden Saleh between Indonesia, Paris, and Dresden

© CFF

Current Publications:

Torsten König, “Hauntings of History(ies): Narrativizations of the Colonial Past in French- and Italian-Language Contemporary Literature,” in: Beatrice Schuchardt, Karen Struve, Juliane Tauchnitz (eds.), Axes and Spectra of Migration in 21st-Century Romance Literatures and Visual Media, Paderborn 2023, pp. 75–88.

© Campus Verlag

Information here

********************************************************************************

Curriculum Vitae

• Studied Romance languages and literature, art history, and philosophy at the TUD Dresden University of Technology, Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Pisa, and the Sorbonne (Paris III and IV)
• Ph.D. from Humboldt University of Berlin with a dissertation on natural science, aesthetics, and religion in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s “Études de la nature”
• Habilitation project: Geopolitics of the (Colonial) Empire: Colonial Territorializations in Popular Media—France and Italy, 1920–1945.
• Core Research Areas: French and Italian literature of the 18th–21st centuries, history of knowledge and literature, geopoetics and geofiction, ethnography and literature, postcolonial theories of space, contemporary French- and Italian-language literatures

Publications

Monographs

• Natural Science, Aesthetics, and Religion in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s *Études de la nature*, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Verlag, 2010.

Anthologies

• Contributed to the editing of: Kolboom, Ingo / Kotschi, Thomas / Reichel, Edward (eds.), Handbook of French: Language, Literature, Culture, Society, Berlin 2002.
• With Christoph Oliver Mayer / Laura Ramírez Sáinz / Nadine Wetzel (eds.), *Rand-Betrachtungen*, Contributions to the 21st Forum for Young Romance Studies, Bonn, Romanistischer Verlag, 2006.
• With Lars Koch (eds.), Between Enmity and Self-Victimization: The Politics of Emotion and the Aesthetics of Populist Communication, Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag, 2020.

Articles in Journals and Anthologies

• “L’Isola livellata —Images of Sicily in the Works of Gesualdo Bufalino and Vincenzo Consolo,” in: Torsten König, Christoph O. Mayer, Laura Ramírez Sáinz, Nadine Wetzel (eds.), Rand-Betrachtungen, Contributions to the 21st Forum for Young Romanists, Bonn, Romanistischer Verlag, 2006. 163–177.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2007 (with Additions to the 2006 Bibliography),” in: Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch. Vol. 83. Edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Rainer Stillers, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, Böhlau Verlag, 2008. 287–292.
• “Édouard Glissant’s Archipelagic Thought: Between Metaphor and Poetic Principle,” in: Gesine Müller, Susanne Stemmler (eds.), Space—Movement—Passage. Postcolonial Francophone Literatures, edition lendemains 14, Tübingen, Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2009. 113–129.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2008 (with Additions to the 2007 Bibliography).” In: German Dante Yearbook. Vol. 84. Edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Rainer Stillers, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, Böhlau Verlag, 2009. 211–217.
• “Étudier la nature comme font les grands peintres. Narrative and Tableau in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s Description of Nature,” in: Veit Elm (ed.), Scientific Narrative in the 18th Century: History, Encyclopedism, Literature, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2010. 175–193.
• “Transsubjective Knowledge in 18th-Century Natural History and Aesthetics—Buffon and Diderot,” in: Niklas Bender, Steffen Schneider (eds.), Objectivity and Literary Objectification since 1750, edition lendemains 22, Tübingen, Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2010. 17–29.
• “Time Tied to the Earth —Topographies and Historiographies in Franco-Caribbean Literature,” in: Christoph Oliver Mayer, Elisabeth Tiller (eds.), Explorations of Space: Disciplinary Approaches, Heidelberg, Winter Verlag, 2011. 263–281.
• “Knowledge of Nature and Descriptions of Nature in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,” in: Tobias Leuker, Rotraut von Kulessa (eds.), Ennoblement versus Popularization? Strategies for the Presentation of Knowledge in Dialogues, Didactic Poems, and Narrative Texts of the Early Modern Period, Munich, Meidenbauer Verlag, 2011. 257–277.
• “The Unbound Nature of Sicily in 20th-Century Italian Literature,” in: Anna E. Wilkens, Partrick Ramponi, Helge Wendt (eds.), Islands and Archipelagos. Cultural Figures of Insularity between Isolation and the Dissolution of Boundaries, Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2011. 135–152.
• “Alexander von Humboldt, Reader of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Science of Life, Literature, and Tropical Nature,” in: Jean-Michel Racault, Chantale Meure, Angélique Gigan (eds.), Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and the Indian Ocean, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2011. 435–451.
• “The Geopolitical Imagination of Polynesia in French Literature: From Bougainville to Chantal T. Spitz,” in: Ottmar Ette, Gesine Müller (eds.), Worldwide. Archipelagos of Globalization. Archipiélagos de la globalización. A TransArea Symposium, Frankfurt am Main / Madrid, Vervuert / Iberoamericana, 2012. 129–148.
• “The Hidden Innards of the Mountain. Landscape and Episteme in Chateaubriand’s Descriptions of Volcanoes,” in: Susanne Goumegou, Brigitte Heymann, Dagmar Stöferle, Cornelia Wild (eds.), On Mountains. Topographies of Transcendence, Berlin, Kadmos, 2012. 157–165.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2009–2010 (with Addenda to the 2008 Bibliography).” In: German Dante Yearbook. Vol. 85. Edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Rainer Stillers, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, Böhlau Verlag, 2012. 288–294.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2011–2012 (with Addenda to the 2009–2010 Bibliography).” In: German Dante Yearbook. Vol. 87/88, edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Rainer Stillers. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, Böhlau Verlag, 2014. 244–253.
• “Ethnographic Narration and Internal Ethnography in Postwar Italy: Between Sprovincializzazione and Primitivismo (Carlo Levi, Ernesto De Martino, Cesare Pavese),” in: Marc Föcking, Michael Schwarze (eds.), Una gente di lingua, di memorie e di cor: Italian Literature and the Difficult National Unity from Machiavelli to Wu Ming, Heidelberg, Winter Verlag, 2015. 105–122.
• “Mediterranean Migration in Contemporary Italian Literature—Biopolitics and Narrative in Social, Media, and Poetological Contexts,” in: PhiN 75 (2016). 1–16. PhiN 75/2016
• “Islands in a Far Sea —On the Geopoetics of Polynesia in French Literature,” in: Simna Brunetti et al. (eds.), Versprachlichung von Welt. Il mondo in parole, Tübingen, Narr Verlag, 2016. 413–428.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2015 (with Additions to the 2014 Bibliography),” in: Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch. Vol. 91, edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Christine Ott. Berlin / Boston, De Gruyter Verlag, 2016. 203–206.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2016,” in: German Dante Yearbook. Vol. 92, edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Christine Ott. Berlin / Boston, De Gruyter, 2017. 171–173.
• “L’Empire et les Nouveaux Barbares —Geopolitics of Migration, Popular Media, and Narrative: On Affect and Knowledge in Contemporary Migration Narratives (Text, Map, Film),” in: PhiN 83 (2018). 1–33. PhiN 83/2018
• “Literature and the Diversity of Francophone Cultures in French Language Education in Germany,” in: Fatima-Zohra Iflahen et al. (eds.), Language Didactics: The Challenges of Innovation, Proceedings of the International Symposium, May 2–3, 2018, University of Marrakech, Marrakech 2018, 127–137.
• “Literature as a Medium for Democratic Debate in Dresden in 1918, 2018, and in Between,” in: Dresdner Hefte. Contributions to Cultural History, 136, 4/2018, pp. 47–56.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2017 (with Addenda to the 2014–2015 Bibliography),” in: Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch. Vol. 93 (2018). Edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Christine Ott in collaboration with Lena Schönwälder. Berlin / Boston, De Gruyter Verlag, 2018. 225–228.
• “German Dante Bibliography 2018 (with Addenda to the 2015 Bibliography),” in: German Dante Yearbook. Vol. 94 (2019). Edited on behalf of the German Dante Society by Christine Ott, with the collaboration of Lena Schönwälder. Berlin / Boston, De Gruyter, 2019.

• with Lars Koch / Gerd Schwerhoff, “Between Enmity and Self-Victimization: The Politics of Emotion and the Aesthetics of Populist Communication. An Approach,” in: Lars Koch / Torsten König (eds.), Between Enmity and Self-Victimization: The Politics of Emotion and the Aesthetics of Populist Communication, Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag, 2020, 9–26.

• “On Ginseng and the Iroquois: Epistemic Breaches, Materiality of Knowledge, and Globalization in Joseph-François Lafitau (1681–1746),” in: Neohelicon. Review for Studies in Comparative and World Literature, vol. 47, 2020, 417–432. Neohelicon 47 (2020)

Reviews and shorter articles

• “Clemens Kammler, Rolf Parr, Ulrich Johannes Schneider (eds.): Foucault Handbook: Life—Work—Impact,” in: Zeitschrift für Germanistik (ZfGerm), Issue 3/2009. New Series. Vol. XIX, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2009. 228–231.
• “Islands in the Mind. Volkmar Billig, *Islands*, and Judith Schalansky, *Atlas of Remote Islands*,” in: *Dresdner-Kulturmagazin*, Issue 6/2010, Dresden. 12–13.
• “The Meaning of History. Mario Fortunato Tells of Love in Times of War,” in: Dresdner-Kulturmagazin, Issue 1/2011, Dresden. 11–12.
• “The Precariousness of Law and Language. Maurice Blanchot’s Novel *The Most High* (1948) Has Been Translated into German for the First Time,” in: *Dresdner-Kulturmagazin*, Issue 1/2012, Dresden. 15–16.
• “Homo Sacer in Algeria. Jérôme Ferrari on the Suspension of Civilization Under a State of Emergency,” in: Dresdner-Kulturmagazin, Issue 7/2012, Dresden. 16–17.
• “What Remains for the Shipwrecked. Four Previously Unknown Stories by Alexandre Dumas Deal with the Dangers of the Sea and of Existence,” in: Dresdner-Kulturmagazin, Issue 9/2012, Dresden. p. 23.
• “Notes from the Institution. Maurice Blanchot, *In Retrospect* (diaphanes, 2012),” in: *Dresdner-Kulturmagazin*, Issue 12/2012, p. 16.
• “Literature Across Borders. Pascale Hugues Receives the Hommage à la FranceLiterary Prize, ”in: Dresdner-Kulturmagazin, Issue 11/2013. p. 12.
• “‘The World of Yesterday’ and the World of Today. Herfried Münkler’s Examination of World War I and Its Fugitive Lines,” in: Dresdner-Kulturmagazin, Issue 4/2014, Dresden. 15–16.
• “Toward New Shores in the Sea of Language. Moshe Kahn Translates Stefano D’Arrigo’s Monumental Marine Epic *Horcynus Orca* into German,” in: *Dresdner-Kulturmagazin*, Issue 5/2015, Dresden. 17.
• “Dostoevsky in Haitian. With *Drunkenness and Atonement*, Gary Victor paints a bleak fresco of a society in disarray,” *Dresdner-Kulturmagazin*, Issue 4/2017, Dresden. 18.
• “Italy’s Heart of Darkness. Francesca Melandri’s novel on repressed colonial history, migration, and the social upheavals of the present,” in: Dresdner-Kulturmagazin, Issue 10/2018. 19

Unpublished Lectures

• “Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and His ‘Theory of the Tides,’” lecture delivered on July 11, 2007, at the University of Montpellier, conference: XIIe Congrès international des Lumières (section: Vulgarisation et littérature); publication in preparation
• “La pensée de la vie chez Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,” lecture delivered on July 13, 2007, at the University of Montpellier, conference: XIIe Congrès international des Lumières (section: Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, homme de lettres, homme de science); publication in preparation
• “Geography of Italian Literature: the Mezzogiorno and Sicily,” lecture delivered on May 19, 2008, at TU Dresden, lecture series: “Italia – Fabbrica delle Idee: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.”
• “Historical City Scenes in French Drama, 1830–60,” lecture delivered on September 29, 2010, at the University of Essen, conference: 7th Frankoromanist Conference; publication in preparation
• “Ludovico Ariosto’s *Orlando Furioso* (1532): In Its Time and Today,” lecture delivered on December 7, 2010, at the Italy Center of the TUD, *Classici Italiani* series
• “Thematic Interpretations of the Roland Cycle in Various Cultural-Historical Contexts,” lecture delivered on February 12, 2012, at the State and University Library of Dresden (SLUB), workshop “ORLANDO—from furioso to virtuoso”
• “Victor Segalen’s Esthétique du Divers and the Poetics of the Foreign,” lecture delivered on September 25, 2013, at the Würzburg Romance Studies Conference, section: Literature as a Challenge. Between the Striving for Aesthetic Autonomy, Contextual Heteronomy, and the Aspiration to Shape Society’s Future
• “Laudation for Pascale Hugues, Marthe, and Mathilde. Hommage à la France Literary Prize,” lecture delivered on November 24, 2013, Dresden, Kulturrathaus.
• “Understanding Today’s Francophone World: The History of Colonial France in the Classroom,” lecture delivered on April 5, 2014, at the 2014 Saxony French Teachers’ Conference, TUD Dresden University of Technology.
• “The Debate on Realism in Colonial Novels of the 1920s and 1930s,” lecture delivered on October 17, 2014, at the conference “Back to Reality.” Recurrences of Realism in 20th- and 21st-Century Italian Literature / Returns to Reality. Realism in 20th-Century and Contemporary Italian Literature. German-Italian Conference at the University of Konstanz / Convegno italotedesco, University of Konstanz / Università di Costanza, October 16–18, 2014.
• “Insularity as an Intermediate Mode—Mediterranean Island Worlds,” lecture delivered on October 24, 2014, at the conference “Border Risks? European ‘Border Regions’ as Dynamic Semiospheres.” German-Italian Symposium in Naples, Università L’Orientale, October 23–25, 2014.
• “Laudation for Manfred Flügge, Heinrich Mann, and France, Hommage à la France Literary Prize,” lecture delivered on November 29, 2014, Dresden, Lingner Castle.
• “Geopoetics of the Empire. Archaeology of a Geopolitical and Geocultural Figure in French and Italian Literature, 1870–1940,” lecture at the Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium of the Department of Romance Studies, TU Dresden, January 21, 2015.
• “La crise du progrès —a topos of criticism of the modern world in Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s *Voyage au bout de la nuit* ,” Romanistik Conference 2015, Mannheim, July 26–29, 2015, “Rewriting Crises” section, Roswitha Böhm / Susanne Ritschel.
• “L’Empire et les nouveaux barbares – Geopolitics of Migration and Popular Media,” lecture delivered on October 22, 2016, at the Migration and Media Conference, October 20–22, 2016, TUD Dresden University of Technology.
• “The Francophone World – Algeria,” November 11, 2016, 2016 French Teachers’ Day, TUD Dresden University of Technology.
• “Italian Colonial Cinema (1911–1943): Trends, Structures, Functions,” lecture at TUD, January 18, 2017.
• “Figures of Degradation in Italian Colonial Film, 1936–1943, and the Coloniality of the Imagination of Migration in the 20th Century,” December 11, 2017, Workshop TP M, SFB Invectivity.
• “The Crisis of the Principle of Authority —On Some Topoi of Conservative Criticism of May ’68,” May 31, 2018, lecture series “Fifty Years of 1968,” TUD
• “Invectivity as a Technique of Power: Figures of Degradation in Italian Colonial Film, 1936–1943,” University of Innsbruck, December 3, 2018
• “Dresden Laboratory. Populism—Local Characteristics and Overarching Manifestations,” panel discussion, Annual Conference of SFB 1285 Dresden, November 16, 2018.

Miscellaneous

Academic Organizations

Knowledge Transfer (Public Events, Panel Discussions, Readings—Organization, Planning, Moderation/Translation)