Dr. Annika Hildebrandt
Junior Fellow, October 2026 to September 2027
University of Bonn
- Since 2021: Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of German Studies, Comparative Literature, and Cultural Studies at the University of Bonn
- 2025: Visiting Professor of Modern German Literature (focusing on the 17th and 18th centuries) at the Department of German Studies, University of Vienna
- 2017: Doctorate in Modern German Literature from Humboldt University of Berlin with a thesis titled “The Mobilization of Poetry: Literature and War around 1750”
Fellow-Projekt: Decadence and Realism Polemical Relations in 20th- and 21st-Century German Literature
In recent years, discourse about cultural decline has resurfaced. In my project, I will explore the historical relevance of the concepts of decline, decay, and decadence in German literature from the 20th century onwards. My focus will be on literary counter-concepts to alleged manifestations of decadence, which were primarily articulated in the context of political rivalries. In response to the proclaimed decadence of the bourgeoisie, capitalism, or liberal elites, writers associated with socialism, fascism, and the New Right offered literary programs promising a return to cultural strength. Realism was particularly often declared the basis of anti-decadent literature: Writers argued that direct references to reality could help correct tendencies in art that were perceived as alienated and elitist.
My project aims to trace continuities and transformations in the relationship between decadence and realism in 20th- and 21st-century German literature, as well as to reveal politicized patterns of argumentation that remain relevant in contemporary debates. Initially, I will focus on the poetics and praxeology of Socialist Realism to provide new perspectives on Hermann Kant’s 1965 novel “Die Aula”, which is set at the University of Greifswald. Next, I will examine concepts of realism in New Right literature at the intersection of popular literature and populism, thereby strengthening research on contemporary German literature and pop literature in Greifswald.