Professor Helena Duffy awarded a prestigious fellowship
Professor Helena Duffy from the Department of French Literature and Culture at the University of Wrocław has been awarded the prestigious Käte Hamburger Fellowship for her interdisciplinary research project “Embodied Trauma Beyond the Human: Reparative Potential of Holocaust Literature”. Professor Helena Duffy will conduct her research at the CURE Research Centre (Cultural Practices of Reparation) at Saarland University in Germany during the upcoming academic year.
Project description:
In response to debates concerning the anthropocentric orientation of trauma theory, the project examines literary representations of interspecies traumatic links in Holocaust narratives, focusing on how trauma is understood as a phenomenon affecting both human and non-human organisms and their natural environments. Referring to the findings of trauma theory, eco- and zoocriticism as well as eco- and zoonarratology, the planned research aims to identify the therapeutic potential of these representations. Although the trauma of the Holocaust remains fundamentally irreparable, literary figurations of embodied, interspecies suffering may help shape ethical positioning, relational responsibility, and imaginative forms of reparation in response to contemporary violence and degradation in both human and environmental contexts.
Translated by Oleksandra Humeniuk (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Date of publication: 18.03.2026
Added by: MJ
