About
Jean joined the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in 2023. His main research interests center around the ‘Blütezeit’ of 19th-century German literature and philosophy, with a focus on the interplay between materialist scientific theories / philosophies, fantastic modes of fiction, and representations of the human–nature binary within an ecocritical framework. He is also interested in modernist writing and its representation of thought as a set of forms, descriptions, place (Örtlichkeit) and a distinct poetics. Other special interests include the authors Thomas Bernhard and Georg Büchner, pessimistic philosophical and fictional modes, the construction of ‘literature’ by literary studies, possibilities for the decolonization of German studies, and the function of memory cultures in the reception of literary texts.
Between August 2021 and May 2023, he taught German language and literature courses at Stellenbosch University at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. He was awarded scholarships from DAAD, the Erasmus+ program, and Stellenbosch University to pursue a binational masters degree in teaching German as a foreign language in an African context, which he completed in November 2022 at the Herder Institute at the University of Leipzig and at Stellenbosch University. His dissertation, ‘Gibt es einen literarischen Kanon im DaF-Kontext? Zur Auswahl von Texten im Bachelorstudiengang am Beispiel von drei südafrikanischen Universitäten’, made use of theories within the broader field of cultural studies to critically evaluate canon-formation in a case study. He also holds a BA(Hons) in German Studies and Economic History, and a BSc from the University of Cape Town, where he wrote an honors paper comparing Robert Musil and Thomas Bernhard’s representation of boarding schools (Internate) and the rhetorical move of aestheticizing not-belonging and imperial decay.
