Dr. Bjoern Quiring

Biography

I joined the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in 2018. Before, I held assistant professorships at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder (2008-2009), the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich (2009-2012) and the Free University, Berlin (2012-2017), as well as visiting scholar positions at New York University (2003-2004) and Harvard University (2016). From 2013-2017, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the DFG (German Research Foundation) Research Group "The Role of Nature in Conceptualising Political Order: Ancient - Medieval - Early Modern" at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. My research focuses on the poetics of law and literature. My first book, "Shakespeare"s Curse: The Aporias of Ritual Exclusion in Early Modern Royal Drama" (2009/2014) analyses the uses of the ritual curse in Shakespeare"s history plays. My second book "Trials of Nature: The Infinite Law Court of Milton's 'Paradise Lost'" (2021) investigates Milton's refashioning of a common metaphor, namely the identification of nature with an all-encompassing court of law and the associated process of judgment. My present book project investigates the dialectics of phantasmatic property in English literature. My teaching and research primarily engages with early modern authors, but also with writers from other periods. I am generally interested in the intersections of literary theory with legal theory and with philosophy, particularly in the work of Walter Benjamin, Hans Blumenberg, Gilles Deleuze and William Empson. I have edited volumes on the theatrum mundi metaphor (2013/2014) and on the relationship between horror literature and philosophy (2014). Additional current research projects focus on satire and sound studies, literature and economics, and on legal hybridities in English literature. I welcome inquiries from interested students at the postgraduate level, especially in the fields of law and literature, and literature and theory. Contact: Dr Björn Quiring, School of English, Room 4021, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland Telephone: + 353 1 896 1346 E-Mail: quiringb@tcd.ie