Christa Schönfelder studied English Literature, German Literature and Media Studies at the University of Berne and joined the English Seminar at the University of Zurich in fall 2007. Her research interests include trauma theory, identity theory, gender studies and nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, with a particular focus on Romanticism and Postmodernism. She has recently completed her PhD thesis Wounds and Words: Childhood and Family Trauma in Romantic and Postmodern Fiction (forthcoming with Transcript in May 2013).

Christa Schönfelder was an associated member of the Zürich Gender Studies Graduiertenkolleg 2008-2011, „Körper, Selbsttechnologien, Geschlecht: Entgrenzungen und Begrenzungen“, as well as a member of the Peer Mentoring Group "Genius for Hire", and she is also part of the editorial board of Variations, a comparative literary journal of the University of Zurich.

In the spring term 2013, she teaches a BA seminar entitled "Dreams" and co-teaches a "Textual Analysis" seminar with Diane Piccitto.

Consultation hours spring 2013: Tuesday, 16:00-17:00

Conference papers:

- “Crises of Identity and Memory, Pathways to Recovery – Childhood Trauma in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye”, presented at: Haunted Narratives: The Politics and Poetics of Identity Formation and Life-Writing, Part II, Graduate Conference, University of Tartu, May 2007

- “Incestuous Desires, Traumatic Loss and Posttraumatic Crisis in Mary Shelley’s Mathilda – A Caruthian Approach and Beyond”, presented at: Haunted Narratives: The Politics and Poetics of Identity Formation and Life-Writing, Part II, Graduate Conference, University of Berne, May 8-11, 2008

- “Trauma and the Sublime in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, presented at: Trauma and the Sublime, an international interdisciplinary conference, Swansea University, Wales, UK, August 6-8, 2008

- “Posttraumatic Memory Disturbances and Crisis of Authenticity in Helen Dunmore’s Talking to the Dead”, presented at: Authenticity conference, University of Berne, October 24, 2008

- "The 'Wounded Mind' – Narrative Mediations of Trauma in Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman", presented at: 18th annual conference of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR): “Romantic Mediations”, Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia , Vancouver, August 18-22, 2010

- "'Putting Things in Order' – Trauma and the Struggle for Recovery in Trezza Azzopardi's The Hiding Place", presented at: Contemporary British Fiction: Narrating Violence, Trauma and Loss, International Conference, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany, September 17-18, 2010

- "Demons of Hatred”: The Anatomy of Mental Illness in William Godwin's Mandeville", presented at: Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, August 6-11, 2011

Organisation of conferences:

“(Mis-)Representations: Trauma Discourses and Cultural Productions”, University of Zurich, 17 October 2009. conference website:

Articles:

- “(Re-)Visions of the Buried Self: Childhood Trauma and Self-Narration in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye" In: Haunted Narratives: Life Writing in an Age of Trauma. Eds. Tiina Kirss, Gabriele Rippl, Philipp Schweighauser, Therese Steffen, Margit Sutrop. University of Toronto Press, forthcoming.

- “Memory, Exile and Homecoming: Response to Maarja Hollo’s ‚Nostalgia and Redemption in Bernard Kangro’s Joonatan-trilogy’“, In: Haunted Narratives: Life Writing in an Age of Trauma. Eds. Tiina Kirss, Gabriele Rippl, Philipp Schweighauser, Therese Steffen, Margit Sutrop. University of Toronto Press, forthcoming.

- “Loss, Violence, and the Ethics of Guilt: Rewriting Trauma and Family History in Trezza Azzopardi's 'The Hiding Place'", In: Critical Engagements. Forthcoming.

- “’I want my past back’: The Quest for Memory and Authenticity in Helen Dunmore’s Talking to the Dead“, In: Paradoxes of Authenticity. Ed. Julia Straub. Transcript, 2012.

 - “Verletzte Grenzen: Der versehrte Körper, Trauma und Stigmatisierung in Trezza Azzopardi’s The Hiding Place“ In: Figurationen: Gender, Literatur, Kultur 2/2011. 73-86.

Editions:

Piccitto, Diane, Christa Schönfelder, Christian Villiger, and Reto Zöllner, eds. Zeitgenossenschaft/Le Contemporain/Contemporaneity. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich 19 (2011).

Reviews:

- Review of Roger Luckhurst, The Trauma Question, New York: Routledge, 2008. Variations - Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich 18 (2010).

- Review of: Anne Whitehead. Memory. The New Critical Idiom. London: Routledge, 2009. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich 19 (2011): 292-93.

- Review of: Suman Gupta. Contemporary Literature. London: Routledge, 2011. Variations: Literaturzeitschrift der Universität Zürich 20 (2012).

Translations:

- Aleida Assmann. “The Shaping of Attention by Cultural Frames and Media Technology”. Translated from German into English, co-translator: Suzanne Leu. In: The Irreducibility of Images. Intermediality in Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies, eds. Christian Emden and Gabriele Rippl, Oxford: Peter Lang 2008.

- Geoffrey Hartman: “Wandlung des kulturellen Gedächtnisses: Wordsworth als Balladenautor”, translated from English into German; co-translator: Cindy Jane Armbruster, in: Arbeit am Gedächtnis. Eds. Michael C. Frank and Gabriele Rippl, Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2007.

- Angela Esterhammer. “Die Kunst des stimmigen Wortes. Improvisatoren und ihr Publikum im 19. Jahrhundert”. Translated from English into German. Concordia Discors – Ästhetiken der Stimmung. Eds. H.-G. von Arburg and S. Rickenbacher. Würzburg: Königshausen&Neumann (forthcoming 2011).