19th and 20th century German-language literature and the history of cinema, with a particular focus on adaptation (1896-present), inter- and transmedialities, film narratology, women and gender in literature and film, representations of alterity, exclusionary practices, exile, migration and reeducation. 

Christiane Schönfeld studied Germanic Languages & Literatures and Art History in Freiburg, Bonn, Paris and at The Pennsylvania State University, where she completed her PhD in 1994. After lecturing at Middlebury College, Vermont (USA), the University of Wales, Lampeter (GB) and the University of Galway, she was appointed Head of the Department of German Studies at Mary Immaculate College in 2009. An advocate of an inclusive culture and multilingualism, she teaches German language and intercultural skills, literature and film. Much of her teaching, but also her interdisciplinary research underscores the important role of literature and film in society. Narratives and representations of inequality and marginalisation, for example, have long served to communicate the vital benefits of EDII (equality, diversity, inclusion and interculturalism) to mass audiences and to trigger debates in the public sphere. In addition, in Germany and Austria, many creative individuals were eliminated not only from society but from the literary canon during the Nazi era and subsequently forgotten. Much of her research is devoted to highlighting the significance of these representations and individuals. Among her publications are a book on the representation of the prostitute in German Expressionism (Dialektik und Utopie, 1996), edited and co-edited volumes such as Commodities of Desire (2000), Practicing Modernity: Female Creativity in the Weimar Republic (2006), Processes of Transposition: German Literature and Film (2007), the works of Ernst Toller (2015), and articles on expressionism, autobiography, creative women of the 19th and 20th century, German film and, especially, film adaptations (for more info please see below). Her most recent book is The History of German Literature on Film (Bloomsbury, 2023). She has served as co-editor of Germanistik in Ireland, on the committees of the Association for German Studies in Britain and Ireland, Women in German Studies, One Voice for Languages, and initiated and co-directed the Irish Centre for Transnational Studies. She currently serves on the committee of the Ernst Toller Gesellschaft and on a number of advisory boards. She has supervised and examined MAs and PhDs on different aspects of 20th and 21st century German literature and film. If you are interested in pursuing postgraduate work, in gaining experience in Teaching German, or if you have any other queries, please contact Christiane via email.