Dr. phil Kikuko Kashiwagi
Chie Nakane - Fellow
Dr. Kikuko Kashiwagi has been Professor of German Studies at Kansai University in Osaka since 2005. She studied German Studies and Museum Studies at Rikkyo University in Tokyo and graduated with a Bachelor's and Master's degree and a qualification as a museum curator. She completed her doctorate at the University of Munich with a dissertation on food rituals in Thomas Mann's work, funded by the DAAD.
Her research focuses on German literature from the 20th century to the present day, the cultural history of modern German-speaking countries and the symbolism of food. She heads a research group on women writers of the Weimar Republic and examines their influence beyond this era. In 2011/12, she was a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Bonn, researching food rituals as an expression of community in German-language literature.
In addition to her academic work, Kashiwagi worked as a dramaturge for the theater group Seiryu in Kobe/Osaka from 2016 to 2020 and participated in productions of classical plays such as Nathan the Wise, Danton's Death and Mary Stuart. She has also translated works by Irmgard Keun into Japanese and written detailed commentaries on their literary context.
Kansai University, Osaka, Japan.
Department of German der Faculty of Foreign Language Studies
Akademisches Profil
German literature from the 20th century to the present day
Ongoing working group: Women Writers in the Weimar Republic - Their Golden Years and After.
Cultural history of the modern German-speaking world
The change in food symbolism
Cultural mediation in German lessons
2007-2009 Research project “Eating and drinking rituals in the big city” (funded by JSPS)
2011-2012 Research stay at the University of Bonn (funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, with Prof. Dr. Michael Wetzel) on the topic of food rituals as embodiments of community in the mirror of German-language literary examples of the 20th century.
2016-2020 dramaturge of the theater group Seiryu in Kobe/Osaka (Nathan the Wise, Danton's Death, The Stopping Rise of Arturo Ui, Andorra, Mary Stuart)
https://seiryu-theater.jp/
Last published (selection):
- Naivität und ungebundene Leichtigkeit bei Irmgard Keun – und die Aufgabe der Übersetzerin ins Japanische.
In: Naives Erzählen. Kindliche, künstliche und manierierte Erzählweise in der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur. Hg. von Julia Boog-Kaminski, Johannes Kaminski, Andree Michaelis König.. Königshausen und Neumann. Würzburg 2024. S. 254-279.
-Das kulinarische Dreieck der Beeren. Zum Kulturthema Essen in Thomas Manns Tod in Venedig und Lotte in Weimar. In: Das Kulturthema Essen bei Thomas Mann. Hg. Von Alois Wierlacher. Königshausen&Neumann. 2024, S. 199-216.
-Theorien des Essens (zusammen mit Anne-Marie Meyer, Suhrkamp 2017)
-Ein Bahnhof aus Backstein: Japans Sehnsucht nach Europa. In: Nostalgie. Imaginierte Zeit-Räume in globalen Medienkulturen. Sabine Sielke (Hg.) unter Mitarbeit von Björn Bosserhoff. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. (2017) S. 221 – 232.
-Interkulturelle Schauplätze in der Großstadt. Hg. mit Michael Wetzel. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink. (2015)
-Aschinger ernährt die Großstadt Berlin. Poetologie des Massenkonsums in Alfred Döblins Berlin Alexanderplatz“. In: Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften. Bielefeld: transcript. (2012)
Übersetzungen vom Werk Irmgard Keuns ins Japanische mit Erläuterungen:
・人工シルクの女の子
Das kunstseidene Mädchen (2013) Kansai University Press
・オフィスガールの憂鬱 ギルギ、わたしたちのひとり
Gilgi – eine von uns (2016) Kansai University Press.
Complete publications at:
https://researchmap.jp/kashiwagi_kikuko