Staff profile

I joined Durham as Assistant Professor in Literature and Drama in September 2022. I trained and worked as a theatre director in Germany before completing a BA in English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths (University of London), followed by an MSt in English Literature (1830–1914) and an AHRC-funded DPhil at the University of Oxford. Before joining Durham, I have held positions as a college lecturer in Victorian and Modern Literature at the University of Oxford, as associate lecturer in Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, and as Assistant Professor in English Literature at the University of Regensburg, where I have taught contemporary British Drama.

Drama, in word and practice, presents a particular focus of interest in my research. My current research working, towards my second monograph is provisionally titled Twisting Tongues: Feminist Theory and Contemporary Drama (2000 – 202X) and investigates the ways in which contemporary plays authored by women could be considered laboratories for contemporary feminist theory and activism. I am particularly interested in texts by Alice Birch, Mojisola Adebayo, Lucy Kirkwood and Ella Hickson.

Previous research encompassed Victorian and Modern literatures with a focus on theories of transnationalism and the political application of aesthetics. My monograph ‘The Indispensable East’: Literary Decadence and Orientalism in England and Germany, 1880−1920, which appeared with Oxford University Press in March 2024, draws upon theoretical models of orientalism and cosmopolitanism to assess the significance of relating to and embodying 'otherness' in Decadent writing. I am currently also writing on Frederick Rolfe's life writing practice and the reception of Walter Pater in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.

 

 

• Decadence
• Drama
• Gender Studies and Feminism
• Literary Theory
• Literature in (medial) translation
• Theatre and Performance Theory/Practice
• Transnational Modernism/The long nineteenth Century

Chapter in book

• 'Dancing the Image: Sensoriality and Kinesthetics in the Poetry of Stephane Mallarmé and Arthur Symons’
  Herold, K. 'Dancing the Image: Sensoriality and Kinesthetics in the Poetry of Stephane Mallarmé and Arthur Symons’. In Decadence and the Senses (141-61). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv16kkz22.14
• Socio-aesthetic Histories: Vienna 1900 and Weimar Berlin
  Herold, K. Socio-aesthetic Histories: Vienna 1900 and Weimar Berlin. In Decadence and Literature (283-99). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108550826.018
• Germany: Decadence from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic
  Herold, K. (2021). Germany: Decadence from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic. In J. Desmarais, & D. Weir (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Decadence. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190066956.013.11
• “Against Civilisation”: Symons, the Gypsy Lore, and Politicised Aestheticism
  Herold, K. (2018). “Against Civilisation”: Symons, the Gypsy Lore, and Politicised Aestheticism. In E. Bizzotto, & S. Evangelista (Eds.), Arthur Symons: Poet, Critic, Vagabond (145-59). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv16km0qt.15

Edited book

• Smell and Social Life: Aspects of English, French and German Literature (1880–1939)
  Herold, K., & Krause, F. (Eds.). Smell and Social Life: Aspects of English, French and German Literature (1880–1939). iudicium

Journal Article

• Intermediality and Decadent Performance in Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste’s Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase (1923)
  Herold-Zanker, K. (2021). Intermediality and Decadent Performance in Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste’s Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase (1923). Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 4(2), 64-88. https://doi.org/10.25602/gold.v.v4i2.1588.g1702
• Allegories on the international scene: Vernon Lee’s, Mina Loy’s, and Else Lasker-Schüler’s war plays
  Herold, K. (2021). Allegories on the international scene: Vernon Lee’s, Mina Loy’s, and Else Lasker-Schüler’s war plays. Feminist Modernist Studies, 4(2), 203-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/24692921.2021.1950472

Monograph

• Decadence and Orientalism in England and Germany, 1880-1920 'The Indispensable East'
  Herold-Zanker, K. (2024). Decadence and Orientalism in England and Germany, 1880-1920 'The Indispensable East'. Oxford University Press