Torben Jelsbak

Torben Jelsbak

  • Emil Holms Kanal 2

    2300 København S

19992019

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Fields of interest

Literary history and media history, sociology of literature, discourse analysis, literary stylistics, cultural studies, popular culture.

Primary fields of research

Scandinavian Modernity, European Avant-Garde art and culture around World War I (Futurism, Expressionism, Dadaism), Nordic Cultural Radicalism from Georg Brandes to Klaus Rifbjerg.

Teaching

Courses forming part of the study programme in Danish:

  • Literary history (2. term)
  • Modern literature and literary theory (3. term)
  • The selective subject "Texts, books and bits"
  • MA courses on Modern Danish literature in interaction with culture and media history

Supervision

I offer supervision on Danish and Nordic literary history from antiquity up until today and I welcome interdiciplinarity – including projects and theses formulated in the border zone between literature, cultural studies, sociology and media history.

Short presentation

My current research concerns the interrelationship and exchange between the 20th century modernist avant-gardes and contemporary media and popular culture. Drawing on theories, concepts and  methods from modern cultural studies, sociology and media theory I examine how the dialogue between high and low is established in a number of Danish litterary works and other cultural products from the period. The aim of the project is to offer a new and more varied insight into the correlation between artistic innovation and popular culture in present day society.

In collaboration with Jens Bjerring-Hansen and Monica Wenusch I am concurrently working to finish a collective book publication entitled "Die skandinavische Moderne" which unites a series of case studies dedicated to the sociology and the media contexts of the modern break-through in the Scandinavian literatures in the late 19th century. 

Furthermore, I am currently involved in a number of international research projects and collective publications on the 20th century artistic and literary avant-gardes in Europe, including the book project "Peripheral Expressionisms" and the trans-european research network "Avant-Garde Migrations".
   

CV

Education

2008 PhD in Nordic Philology, University of Copenhagen

2005-2006 Study and research stay, Humboldt Universität, Berlin

2002 Cand.mag. in Danish, Art History and Comparative Literature, University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

1999-2001 Study stay, Université de Paris X-Nanterre and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris

1997 BA in Danish, Art History and Comparative Literature, UCPH

Positions held

2015- Associate professor in Danish literature, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, UCPH

2014-2015 Associate professor in Danish literature and media, Department of Culture and Identity, Roskilde University (RUC)

2012-2014 Assistant professor in Danish literature and media, Department of Culture and Identity, RUC (parental leave 5 months, January-May 2013)

2012 Part-time lecturer, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, UCPH

2009-2012 Postdoc, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, UCPH

2008 Editor, Danish Society of Language and Literature

2008-2009 Part-time lecturer, Department of Culture and Identity, RUC

2004-2008 PhD scholar, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, UCPH (parental leave 4 months, May-August 2008)


Networks and external duties

  • Member of Danish Society of Language and Literature, 2013-
  • Member of Comité scientifique, Deshima. Revue d’histoire globale des pays du nord, 2010-
  • Member of European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, 2009-
  • Member of the committee of The Danish Society of University anniversary (UJDS), 2007-
  • Member of European Society for Textual Scholarship, 2004-
  • Member of Nordic Network for Textual Scholarship, 2004-
  • Member of Nordic Network for Avant-Garde Studies, 2004-

Knowledge of languages

German, French and English in speech and writing. Passive skills in Norwegian and Swedish.

External positions

Roskilde University

20142015

Roskilde University

20122014

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Avantgarde
  • Nordic Expressionism
  • Dada
  • Futurism
  • Cultural Radicalism
  • book history
  • sociology of texts
  • textual linguistics
  • textual scholarship
  • Formalism
  • paratext
  • literature & politics
  • contemporary literature
  • discourse analysis

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