I am especially interested in the relation between literature and politics. This relation is at the core of my book “The Politics of Adaptation: Contemporary African Drama and Greek Tragedy” (Brill, 2013). There, I analyse how African reworkings of Greek tragedies perform a cultural politics directed at the Europe that has traditionally considered Greece as its property, foundation and legitimization. I additionally discuss how these adaptations invite us to reconsider how we think about the genre of tragedy and about the cultural process of adaptation.

More information about Astrid Van Weyenberg

Fields of interest

Postcolonial Studies, Globalization Studies, South African Literature, African Drama, Irish Drama, Greek Tragedy, Literary and Cultural Theory.

Research

I am especially interested in the relation between literature and politics. This relation is at the core of my book “The Politics of Adaptation: Contemporary African Drama and Greek Tragedy” (Brill, 2013). There, I analyse how African reworkings of Greek tragedies perform a cultural politics directed at the Europe that has traditionally considered Greece as its property, foundation and legitimization. I additionally discuss how these adaptations invite us to reconsider how we think about the genre of tragedy and about the cultural process of adaptation.

At present, I am doing research on constructions of Europe as a narrative in European cultural projects. I seek to analyze what stories of and for Europe cultural projects construct and what political implications a close reading of these stories reveals. 

Teaching

Literature and Theory - Poetry Analysis - Interculturality: Key Concepts - Histories of Gender and Sexuality - Contemporary Visions of Gender and Sexuality - World Literature - Academic Skills - Introduction to Dramatic Media (theater) - Comparative Studies - BA and MA Thesis Supervision

CV

• Lecturer, Department of Film and Literary Studies, Leiden University (Since 2014)

• Lecturer, Department of Literary Studies, University of Amsterdam (2010-2014).

• Part-time Lecturer, Department of English Language and Culture, University of Amsterdam (2011-2012).

• AiO (funded PhD position), The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Department of Literary Studies, University of Amsterdam (2005-2010).

Key publications

• “Ook Vluchteling hoort bij Europese Geschiedenis.” Opinion piece in Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant. 6 November 2015.

• "Repairing Europe: A Critical Reading of Storytelling in European Cultural Projects," Peripheral Visions in the Globalizing Present. Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex, and Race Eds. Hanneke Stuit, Esther Peeren and Astrid Van Weyenberg. Amsterdam: Brill, 2016.

• “From Black Athena to Black Dionysus and beyond? Some thoughts on analysing African adaptations of Greek tragedy,” World Language(s) and World Literature(s). Eds. Theo D’haen & Iannis Goerlandt. Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins, 2015.

• “African Antigones: Pasts, Presents, Futures,” The Returns of Antigone. Eds. Tina Chanter & Sean Kirkland. New York: State University of New York Press, 2014: 261-280.

• Monograph The Politics of Adaptation: Contemporary African Drama and Greek Tragedy. Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers, 2013.

• “Staging Transition: The Oresteia in post-apartheid South Africa," Art and Visibility in Migratory Culture: Enacting Conflict and Resistance, Aesthetically. Eds. Mieke Bal & Miguel Ángel Hernandez-Navarro. Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers, 2012: 69-90. 

• “Wole Soyinka's Yoruba Tragedy: Performing Politics,” African Athena: New Agendas Eds. Daniel Orrells, Gurminder Bhambra & Tessa Roynon. Oxford University Press, 2011: 326-342. 

• “Looking in, from elsewhere,” with Paulina Aroch Fugellie, Eighty-eight: Mieke Bal PhDs 1983-2011. Eds. Esther Peeren & Murat Aydemir. Amsterdam: ASCA Press, 2011: 199-208.

• “Revolutionary Muse: Fémi Òsófisan’s Tègònni: an African Antigone,” Interrogating Antigone in Postmodern Philosophy and Criticism. Eds. Steve Wilmer & Audrone Zukauskaite. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010: 366-378.

• Book review: Alma Parens Originalis? The Receptions of Classical Literature and Thought in Africa, Europe, the United States, and Cuba, Acta Classica, Journal of the Classical Association of South Africa, 2009: 135-138. 

• “‘Rewrite this ancient end!’ Staging transition in post-apartheid South Africa,” New Voices in Classical Reception Studies 3. Ed. Lorna Hardwick, 2008. Online.

• “Antigone on the African Stage: ‘Wherever the call for freedom is heard!’” Migrant Settings, Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex, and Race. Eds. Murat Aydemir & Alex Rotas. Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers, 2008: 119-137.

• Encyclopaedic entries: “Liz Lochhead” and “Mary Queen of Scots got her Head Chopped Off,” Columbia Grolier Encyclopedia of Modern Drama. Eds. Gabrielle Cody & Evert Sprinchorn. 2008: 873-874.

• “Antigone as Revolutionary Muse: Fémi Òsófisan’s Tègònni: an African Antigone,” Journal of African Literature and Culture 4: A Widening Frontier. Ed. Charles Smith, 2007: 59-80.

Activities