Sophie Emilia Seidler | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (original) (raw)

Videos by Sophie Emilia Seidler

Vortrag auf der Online-Konferenz des 11. Wiener Kongresses Essstörungen und assoziierte Krankheit... more Vortrag auf der Online-Konferenz des 11. Wiener Kongresses Essstörungen und assoziierte Krankheitsbilder, MedUni AKH Wien, 25.-27.3.2021)
(online presentation for the 11th Congress on Eating Disorders and Associated Diagnoses, MedUni Vienna, March 2021)

Link: https://essstoerungen2021.medacad.org/programm/

Keywords:
Medical Humanities, Literature & Healing, Eating Disorder Memoirs, Sick Lit, Anorexia & Misogyny, Feminist Theory, Food Symbolism, Persephone, Myth Reception, Louise Glück

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Papers by Sophie Emilia Seidler

Gattungstheorie und Dichtungspraxis in neronisch-flavischer Epik, ed. Söllradl & Schwameis, 2023

Cahiers du Genre 74.1, 2023

Prenant en compte à la fois les voies ouvertes par une approche psychanalytique des mythes et ses... more Prenant en compte à la fois les voies ouvertes par une approche psychanalytique des mythes et ses dangers, cet article étudie les interprétations contemporaines du mythe de Déméter et Perséphone qui le relient à l’anorexia nervosa, trouble psychosomatique potentiellement mortel caractérisé par le refus de se nourrir et souvent associé au malaise causé par les préjugés de genre, les images amoindrissantes de la féminité et la quête d’agentivité dans une société patriarcale – sujets que de nombreuses versions du mythe soulèvent également. Si l’on peut discuter de l’utilité des références mythiques pour les praticienne·s et patient·s, associer les déesses de l’Antiquité aux troubles de l’alimentation modernes permet d’ouvrir des perspectives interdisciplinaires, féministes et inter-sectionnelles sur le récit antique et de nourrir les débats concernant sa réception, débat auquel participe également la poésie contemporaine autour de Déméter et Perséphone.

Considering both the insights and pitfalls of a psychoanalytic approach to myths, this article examines contemporary interpretations of the myth of Demeter and Persephone that link it to anorexia nervosa, a potentially fatal psychosomatic disorder characterized by the refusal to eat and often associated with the discomfort of gender bias, demeaning images of femininity, and the quest for agency in a patriarchal society – issues that many versions of the myth also raise. While the usefulness of mythical references for practitioners and patients is up for discussion, relating ancient goddesses to modern eating disorders opens up interdisciplinary, feminist and intersectional perspectives on the ancient narrative and informs debates about its reception, in which modern poetry about Demeter and Persephone is also involved.

Since ethnic stereotyping gained new political virulence in the current ethnopopulist climate, th... more Since ethnic stereotyping gained new political virulence in the current ethnopopulist climate, the three-day conference, organized by five researchers from the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna, aimed to promote academic discussion on new perspectives on imagology. In twenty-six presentations, international scholars shared their findings on strategies of Othering within a transdisciplinary framework of different theoretical approaches from postcolonial theory to gender studies, from intermediality to musicology, in order to fathom the boundaries of imagological research today. An additional poster session gave students the opportunity to present their research on hetero- and auto-stereotypes within literature

Acta Iassyensia Comparationis

Acta Iassyensia Comparationis, 29 (1/2022), 2022

As paradigmatic emblems of fantasy and imagination, creative freedom and poetic license, hybrid m... more As paradigmatic emblems of fantasy and imagination, creative
freedom and poetic license, hybrid monsters in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
preside over the author’s playful engagement with traditional
aesthetic, moral, and societal values, and gendered ideals. This article
aims at a subversive reading of one monstrous creature in the
final pentad of Ovid’s epic: Scylla (Met. 13.730-14.74). As a monster,
Scylla incorporates several misogynistic stereotypes (“doggishness”,
puella dura, self-laceration, vagina dentata), but she
eventually escapes the objectifying male gaze and finds rest in a
stable, permanent shape that is no longer the feminine-gendered
battlefield for male heroism. Breaking away from the conventional
epic plot structure “male hero wins over feminized beasts and/or
beautiful girls”, Ovid considers the Roman national hero Aeneas
with but a minimum of attention, while nymphs and women take
center stage: Scylla’s transformation from a girl into a monster
and, finally, into a geological rock formation, is intertwined with
tales about female solidarity and intimacy and about women’s sexual
desire, rage, and revenge. While Scylla’s canine bloodlust and
Circe’s vengeful magic certainly reproduce typically patriarchal
anxieties projected onto women, they are also traces of unruly, recalcitrant
femininity within the canonical, male-dominated world
of heroic epic.

Brigitte le Juez & Metka Zupančič, eds., Le mythe au féminin et l’(in)visibilisation du corps, Sep 2021

Le mythe ancien de Déméter et Perséphone décrit le développement des femmes dans un environnement... more Le mythe ancien de Déméter et Perséphone décrit le développement des femmes dans un environnement patriarcal. La nourriture et le refus de manger occupent une place importante dans l'histoire de la protagoniste, la jeune déesse Perséphone, et de la séparation de sa mère, la déesse des céréales Déméter. En psychologie contemporaine, le mythe est souvent utilisé comme un modèle anachronique pour expliquer les troubles nutritionnels – l'anorexie et la boulimie. Cet article examine la grève de la faim et le symbolisme alimentaire dans quatre versions du mythe de différentes époques, langues et genres : l’Hymne « homérique » à Déméter, les Métamorphoses d’Ovide, la poésie de Lotta Olsson, poétesse suédoise, et les bandes dessinées de George O’Connor, illustrateur américain. Il s'avère que l'esthétique du (auto-) renoncement est inscrite dans le mythe bien avant le développement d'un modèle de maladie psychiatrique. La poétique anorexique qui prédomine dans les diverses adaptations du mythe de Perséphone fournit des informations sur les idéaux de la féminité et sur les possibilités de rupture d'une culture misogyne et hostile au corps.

Medienimpulse 56/3 (2018), 2018

In his mock-epic The Rape of the Lock (first published 1712), Alexander Pope undertakes an enterp... more In his mock-epic The Rape of the Lock (first published 1712), Alexander Pope undertakes an enterprise daring not only from a literary-historical point of view, since he ridicules and trivializes the sublime ancient genre of epic, but also from a poststructuralist perspective focussing on gendered roles. The heroi-comical poem has hence gained much attention within feminist and gender-theoretical criticism. Yet it seems that the eponymic item itself, the female protagonist’s lock, has not received due interpretation although it constitutes a substitute for both masculinity and femininity, as well as a symbol of maidenhood, beauty, youth, life and power—an object of desire, in Lacanian terms.

Hence, this article tries to approach the strand of hair suggesting it represents a symbolic phallus – a signifier without signified, oscillating, receding, and surrogating gendered categories. It is not Belinda who is the object of the Baron’s love, but the lock itself which is later deified and praised. It thus obtains functions far beyond its trivial worth—a phenomenon thoroughly dealt with in Lacan’s poststructuralist modification of Freudian psychoanalysis. This will be shown by a close-read characterisation of the lock’s attributes roles accredited to it by the poem’s protagonists.

Research Projects by Sophie Emilia Seidler

International and interdisciplinary conference organized by LMU's Graduate School Language & Lite... more International and interdisciplinary conference organized by LMU's Graduate School Language & Literature

Flowers are far less innocent than bridal bouquets and Mother's Day kitsch might sug gest. For Al... more Flowers are far less innocent than bridal bouquets and Mother's Day kitsch might sug gest. For Alice Walker, the elaborate floral arrangements that her mother used to adorn even the shabbiest houses with symbolize not only comfort and hope despite poverty, but the creative potential of a generation of Black women who were denied other access to art, culture, and selfrealization. 1 Culturally and historically, flower picking is connoted with human power over nature, yet it also glosses over sexual violence, colonial fantasies of discovery, and anthropocentric delusions of grandeur. In ancient myths and wedding rituals, young girls are abducted and raped while gathering flowers; 2 the symbolically charged breaking of flowers anticipates defloration. Most recently, the fact that Goethe's folk poem "Heidenröslein" identifies a rape victim with a broken rose came under literal attack in the wake of a #MeTooinspired campaign when the art collective Frankfurter Hauptschule threw toilet paper at the Goethe House in Weimar in the summer of 2019 to denounce the flowery euphemism. 3 On colonial expeditions, botanists collected impor tant plant knowledge, but the exotic objects unknown in Europe were also exported, clas sified, and monetized; this imperialist gesture still resonates in the term "plant hunter." 4 The poetry of symbolism, impressionism, and modernity seized the fascination for or chids, lilies, and azaleas. 5 However, even today, tropical flowers are still a status symbol, as evidenced by the "PlantParenting" trend on social media platforms that has flourished during the Covid pandemic. 6 Neobaroque, floral book formats-anthologies, florilegia, herbaria-enjoy renewed popularity in times of climate crisis: in contemporary artistic plant collections, the need for order and explanation meets subversive critique of Wes tern, anthropocentric exploitation of nature, 7 while voices in philosophy, literary, and cultural studies aspire to reestablish the herbarium as a text genre for the humanities that meets critical and posthumanist demands more effectively than the individualistic monograph. 8

by Penelope Kolovou, Efstathia Athanasopoulou, Richard Cole, Hanna Paulouskaya, Katarzyna Marciniak, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, Markus Kersten, liliana giacoponi, Tiphaine-Annabelle Besnard, Helena González Vaquerizo, Ben Earley, Shushma Malik, Edward McInnis, Liliana Dottorato, Kyriaki Athanasiadou, Gina Bevan, Peter Kotiuga, Maciej Junkiert, Rossana Zetti, and Sophie Emilia Seidler

Book Reviews by Sophie Emilia Seidler

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2021

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2021/2021.06.43/ Melanie Möller, Gegen/Gewalt/Schreiben: De-Konstruk... more https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2021/2021.06.43/

Melanie Möller, Gegen/Gewalt/Schreiben: De-Konstruktionen von Geschlechts- und Rollenbildern in der Ovid-Rezeption. Philologus. Supplemente, Band 13. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2020. Pp. vii,187. ISBN 9783110702965 $103.99.

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.11.27/, 2020

Book Review: Thomas Emmrich, Ästhetische Monsterpolitiken. Das Monströse als Figuration des eing... more Book Review:
Thomas Emmrich, Ästhetische Monsterpolitiken. Das Monströse als Figuration des eingeschlossenen Ausgeschlossenen. Beiträge zur Literaturtheorie und Wissenspoetik, Band 14. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Verlag, 2020.

Medien & Zeit 3/2019, 2019

Talks by Sophie Emilia Seidler