Room: R11 T04 C26
Office hours: Please consult the official list of office hours
Tel.: 0201/183-2239 (E)
e-mail: torsten.caeners@uni-due.de
Biographical Information
Torsten Caeners, born 1976 in Moers, studied English and American Literature and Culture as well as Computational Linguistics at the University of Duisburg (1998 - 2004). He finished his studies in October 2004 with an M.A. thesis on the shorter poetry of the Augustan poet Dr. William King. Since then he has been teaching at the Department for Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In 2010 he finished his PhD with a thesis investigating the application of poetic writing for psychoanalytical treatment in the context of post-structuralist literary theory. Since the beginning of 2007, he additionally holds the position of Coordinator for the BA "Business Administation and Culture" within the Department of Humanities.
| Since 08/2011 |
Study Councillor BA / MA "Anglophone Studies" |
| 06/2010 |
Dr. phil. (PhD) in English Literature, University of Duisburg-Essen |
| Since 4/2007 | Coordinator of the interdisciplinary BA study programme ”Kulturwirt“ (“Cultural Studies and Business Administration”) |
| 06/2010 |
Dr. phil. (PhD) in English Literature, University of Duisburg-Essen |
| 8/2006 - 4/2007 | Research assistant at the Department of Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg - Essen (Prof. Dr. Michael Gassenmeier) |
| 2004 - 2008 | Lecturer at the Department of Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg- Essen |
| 11/2001 - 12/2003 | Student assistant in the Department of Computational Linguistics at the University of Duisburg-Essen |
| 2001 | Student tutor for English literature at the University of Duisburg-Essen |
| 10/1998 - 10/2004 | Studies of British and American Literature and Culture, and Computational Linguistics at the University of Duisburg-Essen |
| 8/1996 - 9/1997 | Work with a severely disabled child (autism) for my mandatory period of social service (Zivildienst) |
| 6/1996 | Abitur, Gymnasium Adolfinum in Moers |
Areas of Research and Teaching
Torsten Caeners' research is focused on creative/poetic writing, especially the process(es) of poetic creation and the participation of unconscious influences in poetic writing. Further research interests are Renaissance and contemporary British and American poetry, in particular the role and function of poetry within society. The appropriation of traditional poetic forms and genres in contemporary poetry constitutes another focal point. He is also interested in contemporary (science fiction) series as a means of social and cultural commentary. In his teaching Torsten Caeners offers courses in British and American literature from the Renaissance to the 21st century. In the past he has taught seminars on Shakespeare, Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin, the sonnet, Restoration and Augustan literature and culture, and British Romanticism.
SoSe 12
PS: “A Survey of British Literature”
PS: "Staging the Postmodern: Influences, Strategies and Depictions of Postmodernity in Contemporyr Popular Culture"
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
WS 11/12
MA: Theories of Culture
MA: Literary Theory
ÜB: “Introduction to Literary Studies for Kulturwirte”
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
SoSe 2011
PS: “A Survey of British Literature”
PS: “The Underworld in 20th and 20st Century British Poetry”
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
WS 2010/11
MA: Theories of Culture
MA: Literary Theory
ÜB: “Introduction to Literary Studies for Kulturwirte”
SoSe 2010
HS: 'We shall express our darker purpose' - Renaissance Tragedy in the Contexts of its Time
PS: "A Survey of British Literature"
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
WS 09/10
PS: “A Survey of British Literature”
PS: "Contemporary British Poetry"
Ü: "Introduction to Literary Studies for Kulturwirte"
HS: The Sovereign's Voice? -- The Poets Laureate from John Dryden to Andrew Motion"
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
SoSe 09
PS: “A Survey of British Literature”
PS: "Poetry, Politics and Power: 18th Century British Literature and Culture"
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
WS 08/ 09
PS: “Our global story is not yet completed – 20th century Britain and the sonnets”
PS: “A Survey of British Literature”
LC: “Language Course English for students of Media and Cognitive Sciences"
Ü: Poetic Writing Workshop
SoSe 08
PS: “Contemporary Irish and Scottish Literature and Culture”
HS: “Introduction to poetic writing"
LC: “Language Course English for students of Media and Cognitive Sciences"
WS 07/ 08
HS: “Literature and Culture of the Romantic Period in Britain”
LC: “Foundation Grammar”
LC: “Language Course English for students of Media and Cognitive Sciences"
SoSe 07
HS: “Images and counter-images of love in Renaissance Britain”
LC: “Skills-focused language course (receptive)”
LC: “English for Water Scientist”
WS 06/07
Ü: “Introduction to Literary Studies”
PS: “Rebellion and Resuscitation: Formal Verse in Post-modern British and American Poetry”
LC: “Skills-focused language course (receptive)”
LC: “English for Water Scientists”
SoSe 06
ÜB: “Introduction to Literary Studies”
PS: “Our global story is not yet completed – 20th century Britain and the sonnets”
LC: “English for Water Scientists”
WS 05/06
PS: “Who justly knew to blame, or to commend – British Poetry from the Restoration Period to the Augustan Age”
SoSe 05
PS: “Introduction to 20th Century Poetry”
SoSe 01
Tutorial: VL “Survey of English Literature: The 18th Century”
Publications
Monographs
Poetry as Therapy: Contemporary Literary Theory as a Foundation of Poetry Therapy.Trier: WVT, 2011
Essays and Reviews
"'Neither god nor ghost:' The Resurrection of the Tollund Man in Seamus Heaney's District and Circle." LWU: Journal of Academic Research and Education 1:2006
"'Let me tell you the story of a soldier named Dan:' Konkretisierungs- und Personalisierungstendenzen in Donovans Protestliedern der 1960er Jahre." Da habt Ihr es, das Argument der Straße. Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zum politischen Lied. Martin Butler und Frank Erik Pointner (eds.).Trier: WVT, 2007.
"Humanity's scarred Children: The Cylons' oedipal Ddilemma in Battlestar Galactica." Extrapolation 49:3 (2008).
mit Stefanie Albers: "The Poetics and Aesthetics of Ian McEwan's Atonement." English Studies - A Journal of English Language and Literature. 90:6 (2009). 707-720.
"'Imagined within the gravitational pull of the actual' - The fusion of the private and the public in Seamus Heaney's Poetic Theory." Intimate Exposure: Essays on the Public/Private Divide in British Poetry Since 1950. Emily Merriman (ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2010.
"Beyond Mourning and Melancholia - Postmodern Grief in Douglas Dunn's Elegies." LWU: Journal of Academic Research and Education 1:2010.
" 'You're broken. I can fix you' -- Negotiating US ideological concepts in Heroes." Inverstigating Heroes: Essays on Truth, Justice and Quality TV. David Simmons (ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011.
Review: Herbert F. Tucker's "Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse: 1790-1910." Anglistik - International Journal of English Studies (1 /2009)
Review: Michael Thurston's "The Underworld in Twentieth Century Poetry." Anglistik - International Journal of English Studies (2/2011)
"'Co-opted and obliterated echo' - Formal Poetry and the Negotiation of Identities." English Studies, 93:1, 57-70.
Accepted for publication
In Preparation
"Breaking the Cyce: Revaluating the Ending of Battlestar Galactica"
"Palimpestuous Textuality and/in Edwin Muir's 'Milton'
"‘It’s a flaw in my character’- Gaius Baltar and the structure of Battlestar Galactica"
"Urban Space as a Place of Romantic Imagination in Mary Robinson's 'London's Summer Morning'"
"Tennyson's Reception in Germany"
"The Locus Amoenus in Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife." (with Stefanie Albers)
"Docile Romeo – A Foucaultian Reading of Romeo and Juliet"
"The Irish Tiresias -- Heaney's Tollund Man and the classical figure of the blind seer."
Original Works
Poem “Jenny” in Anon Magazine, Volume 5
Poem “Nell on Campus” in Quiddity Journal, Volume 1, 2008
(see: www.sci.edu/quiddity/issue01-1/index.html#tcaeners)
Conference papers:
“’Imagined within the gravitational pull of the actual’ – The fusion of the private and public discourses in Seamus Heaney’s poetic theory” at the International Conference "British Poetry 1950-2008 and the Public/Private Divide" 27-28 June 2008 at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV).
"'Simple Pagan Prayers' - Poetry as Belief in Douglas Dunn's Elegies" at the Conference "Poetry and Belief" 24-25 April 2009 at the University of Central Lancashire.
" 'Co-opted and obliterated echo' - Formal poetry and the negotiation of identities" at the Identity and Form in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Literature Conference. Sheffield Hallam University, UK. 3-4 July 2009.
"'Ruddy Morn' and 'Ruddy Housemaids' - Urban Space as a Place of Romantic Imagination in Mary Robinson's "London's Summer Morning'" at Romantic Cityscapes. 14th International Symposium of the German Society for English Romanticism. at the University Duisburg-Essen. 6-9 October 2011.
"The Reception of Tennyson in Germany" at Colloquium for the Reception of Tennyson in Europe at King's College, London. 14-15 October 2011.
Miscellaneous
Radio interview on “Poetry and Wellness” hosted by Joanna Beth Tweedy in May 2008 (WUIS-WIPA, Illinois Public Radio, Illinois, USA. See: www.wuis.org/Quiddity/)