Benedetta Bronzini, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Description

While the ‘cinematographical’ nature (Zischler 2017) of Kafka’s writing has been a relevant object of secondary literature, despite Kafka’s deep interest in theater and performance, less attention has been paid to the theatrical attitude of his characters and of his texts. At the same time, it is remarkable how, after 1950, almost all Kafka’s works have been the subject of a theatrical adaptation at least once, both in German-speaking countries and internationally, attesting the atemporal, and therefore eternal nature Kafka’s subjects and of the existential questions that are raised by his oeuvre. The paper aims at analyzing the multiple strategies of stage-adaptations of the works and fragments of Franz Kafka on German postdramatic (Lehmann 1999) stages through specific case studies.

About the Presenter

Benedetta Bronzini is Junior Research Fellow at the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy) in the project Polimnia. Opera for All! She holds an international PhD (Bonn - Firenze) in Germanic and Comparative Studies focusing on author’s interview as a performative and documentary act. The main topics of her research are Franz Kafka, Heiner Müller, Transmediality, 20th-Century and contemporary German Performance Studies. She writes for “Rivista di Letterature Moderne e Comparate e Storia delle Arti”, “Amsterdam Museum Journal”, and “Stratagemmi. Prospettive teatrali". In 2020 she published her first monograph Dare forma al silenzio. Heiner Müller e Pier Paolo Pasolini artisti dell’intervista. She recently edited the book Opera Across Borders (DeGruyter/Brill 2026).

Register and Request Paper

This event is free to all faculty, grad students, and interested members of the public, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.

Questions?

About the German Studies Seminar Series

The German Studies Seminar provides a forum for discussing papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and that reconceptualize the materials and conventions of German Studies as a field, including beyond the frames of the German language and nation state.

The seminar’s co-organizers are Alice Goff (University of Chicago), Dustin Lovett (DePaul University), Imke Meyer (University of Illinois Chicago), Sophie Salvo (University of Chicago), Anna Souchuk (DePaul University), and Lauren Stokes (Northwestern University).

The seminar is generously sponsored by Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago, the Department of Modern Languages at DePaul University, and the Department of History at Northwestern University.