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Dr Yixu Lu

Dr. Phil., MA (Regensburg); BA (Beijing).
Senior Lecturer, Chair of Department
Brennan MacCallum Building 518
Phone: +61 2 9351 3293


After obtaining her first degree at the Peking University, Yixu Lu spent seven years as a postgraduate at the Universität Regensburg, specialising in German Literature and Modern European history. Her doctoral dissertation there was on German drama of the early nineteenth century. She came to Australia as a Postdoctoral Fellow, has taught at the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and, most recently, UTS. She has held an Alexander von Humboldt-Fellowship at the Universität zu Köln and is currently appointed guest professor at the Chinese Ocean University, Qingdao (2007-2009).

Research areas

Yixu Lu's main research interest is modern German literature and history. Her research work concentrates on the following areas: 18th-20th century German literature; German colonialism and nationalism, contemporary German culture and society.

Current projects

Her current research includes a book project on the adaptations of the myth of Medea in German literature from the 18th century to the present, the works of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) and two projects on German colonialism in China in conjunction with Professor David Goodman of UTS. The project Germany in China: Colonial Interactions, Qingdao 1897-1914 which is funded by an ARC Discovery Grant, examines the contemporary record of Chinese-German interaction in the former German colony, so as to assess different facets of Qingdao's subjugation by Germany as an atypical example of colonialism and its impact on Chinese nationalism. The other project Germans in China in the early 20th century focuses on the life histories of Germans who lived in China in the context of colonial cosmopolitanism.

Selected publications

Books

  • Medea unter den Deutschen Wandlungen einer literarischen Figur. Freiburg i Br.: Rombach Verlag 2009, 270 pp.
  • Frauenherrschaft im Drama des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts [States ruled by women in German dramas of the early 19th century]. Munich 1993, 234pp.

Book chapters

  • “Exiled in the Homeland: Heiner Müller’s Medea”, in: Paul Allatson and Jo McCormack (eds.): Exile Cultures, Misplaced Identities. Rodopi: Amsterdam, 2008, pp. 185-204.
  • “Der Boxer-Aufstand in der Literatur”, in: Mechthild Leutner/Klaus Mühlhahn (eds): Kolonialkrieg in China .Die Niederschlagung der Boxerbewegung1900-1901. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2007, pp. 192-98.
  • "Der Sinn des 'Heiligen' in Kleists 'Penthesilea'", in: Lothar Jordan (ed.): Beiträge zur Kleist-Forschung. Kleist-Museum: Frankfurt (Oder), 2004, pp. 143-163.
  • "Germany: Myth and Apologia in Christa Wolf's Novel 'Medea. Voices'", in: Maja Mikula (ed.): Women, Activism and Social Change: Stretching Boundaries, London and New York: Routledge 2005 (= Routledge research in gender and society 10), pp. 198-214.
  • "Die problematische Katharsis. Läuterungsprozesse im Werk Kleists, in Peter Ensberg and Hans-Jochen Marquardt (eds): [[i| Kleists Beiträge zur Ästhetik der Moderne]]. Stuttgart: 2002, pp. 171-182.
  • "Die Fremde zwischen Gottheit und Tier: Hans Henny Jahnns 'Medea'", in Sabine Doering, Waltraud Maierhofer and Peter Riedl (eds), Resonanzen. Festschrift für Hans Joachim Kreutzer. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann, 2000, pp. 413 - 428.
  • "Die Fährnisse der verklärten Liebe. Über Kleists 'Käthchen von Heilbronn'", in Tim Mehigan (ed): [[i||Kleist und die Aufklärung.Rochester:Camden House, 2000, pp. 169-184.

Articles

  • "Erinnerung und Tragik in Grillparzers 'Das Goldene Vließ'", in: Limbus. Australisches Jahrbuch für Germanistische Kulturwissenschaft 2008. Freiburg i.Br.: Rombach Verlag, pp. 85-97.
  • “Germany’s war in China: media coverage and political myth”, in: German Life and Letters (61:2), 2008, pp. 202-214.
  • "Geschichte und Fiktion: der Boxer-Aufstand in der zeitgenössischen deutschen Popularliteratur", in: Jean-Marie Valentin (ed.): Jarhbuch für Internationale Germanistik. Reihe A, Bd. 84. Bern/Berlin/Bruxelles 2007, vol. 8, pp. 229-234.
  • “Exile and Stasis in Heiner Müller’s Medea-Adaptation”, in International Yearbook of the Society of Literature and Aesthetics IV, 2006. pp. 81-98.
  • “German Colonial Fiction on China: The Boxer-Uprising 1900-1901”, in German Life and Letters (59:1), 2006, pp.78-100.
  • "Die Spaltung des Menschlichen: Klingers Medea-Dramen und Goethes 'Iphigenie auf Tauris'" ["The division of the human: Klinger’s Medea-dramas and Goethe’s 'Iphigenia in Tauris'"], in Jahrbuch der deutschen Schillergesellschaft [Yearbook of the German Schiller Society], 2004, pp. 36-57.
  • "Zur Schreibtechnik Kleists im 'Käthchen von Heilbronn'", in: Kleist-Jahrbuch 2003, pp. 282-306.
  • "Die Theatralität des Göttlichen: Über Kleists 'Amphityron'", in: Kleist-Jahrbuch 2001, pp. 148-159.
  • "Mienen sind schlechte Rätsel. Transparenz und Verschleierung in den Figurenbeziehungen bei Kleist", in: Aurora. Jahrbuch der Eichendorff-Gesellschaft fur die klassisch-romantische Zeit 60, 2000, pp. 45-73.
  • with Anthony Stephens "Die Ersetzbarkeit des Menschen. Alter Ego und Stellvertreter im Werk Heinrich von Kleists", in: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Schiller-Gesellschaft, XXXVIII, 1994, pp. 116-138.
  • with Anthony Stephens "Die Verfühung des Lesers im Erzählwerk Kleists", in: Kleist-Jahrbuch , 1994, pp. 104-117.
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Areas of teaching and research supervision

Teaching

  • German Literature from the Enlightenment to the Present
  • German history and society of the 19th century
  • Myth and literature
  • Contemporary German culture and society

Supervision

  • German colonialism in China
  • Myth and literature
  • Media and culture in 20th century Germany
  • German literature from 18th century to the present
  • Heinrich von Kleist
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