Mag. Dr. Robert Spindler MA
Project Leader
Department of American Studies
University of Innsbruck
Innrain 52d, 6020 Innsbruck
Humanities building, 4th floor, room 40416
Phone: +43 512 507 41620
E-Mail: robert.spindler@uibk.ac.at
Office hour: by appointment
Project
Lawbreakers, Apostates, Witches: Figures of Transgression in Narrative English Broadside Ballads (1550-1800)
(FWF Erwin Schrödinger Stipendium - Rückkehrphase)
One of the most popular text types in early modern England (c. 1500-1700) is still much overlooked today: the ballad. Thousands of such ballads have been preserved, and still they represent only a fraction of the actual phenomenon of the “broadside ballad”– so called for the single sheets on which these song texts were hurriedly printed and then sold to the masses at very low prices.
The present project aims to establish the position of the early modern English ballad within literary and cultural history and to emphasize its remarkable role in the development of British literature and culture. The core of the project is a representative corpus of ballads that tell of norm-breaking (“transgressive”, “non-normative”) figures. Based on this, a so-called “character typology” of the English ballad shall systematically record and describe the repertoire of protagonists and their typical narrative characteristics. A similar procedure will then examine and map out the typical plot structures and narrative techniques that characterize the ballad. On the basis of this, the ballad genre will be embedded in the social and cultural history of early modern England.
Research Interests
- Early modern English and American broadside ballads
- English, American, and German Barbary captivity narratives
- The American frontier and Native Americans in literature and film
- Medieval literature and medievalism
Degrees
- 2022 Master of Arts in German Literature, University of Munich, Germany
- 2016 Dr. phil. in English and American Studies, University of Innsbruck, Austria
- 2008 Magister phil. in English and American Studies, with distinction, University of Innsbruck, Austria
for more details CV Robert Spindler
Publications (selected)
- Corsairs, Captives, Converts in Early Modernity: Narrating Barbary Captivity in German-Speaking Europe and the World, 1558–1807. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2020.
- “Fährten, Waffen, Körperkult: Zeichensysteme in Karl Mays Winnetou (1893).” Jahrbuch der Karl-May-Gesellschaft 52 (2022): 245-268.
- “Western Nostalgia, Revisionism and Native American Women in Wind River (2017).” Women in the Western. Ed. Sue Matheson. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020. 159-172.
- “The Robinsonade as a Literary Avatar of Early Nineteenth-Century Barbary Captivity Narration.” Mediterranean Slavery and World Literature: Captivity Genres from Cervantes to Rousseau. Ed. Mario Klarer. London: Routledge, 2020. 175-194.
- “Benevolent Masters, Despicable Renegados: Relativizing Portrayals of Muslims in British Barbary Captivity Narratives, 1595 – 1739.” Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 30.3 (2019): 141-156.
- “An Early Schelmenroman: The Picaresque Elements in the German Barbary Captivity Narrative Verzeichnis der Reise (1558) by Balthasar Sturmer.” Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift 69.1 (2019): 1-20.
- “Fluch des Mittelmeers: Zur Rezeption der frühneuzeitlichen Barbareskenkorsaren in der Populärkultur.” Piraten und Sklaven im Mittelmeer: Eine Ausstellung von Schloss Ambras Innsbruck und der Universität Innsbruck. Eds. Sabine Haag, Veronika Sandbichler, and Mario Klarer. Vienna, Innsbruck: Haymon, 2019. 73-77.
- “Identity Crises of Homecomers from the Barbary Coast.” Piracy and Captivity in the Mediterranean: 1550-1810. Ed. Mario Klarer. London: Routledge, 2019. 128-143.
- (with Almyria Wilhelm) Annotated primary text translation from German into English: Balthasar Sturmer. “Account of the Travels of Mister Balthasar Sturmer (1558).” Barbary Captives: An Anthology of Early Modern Slave Memoirs by Europeans in North Africa. Ed. Mario Klarer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. 56-89.
- Annotated primary text translation from German into English: Hark Olufs. “The Remarkable Adventures of Hark Olufs (1747).” Barbary Captives: An Anthology of Early Modern Slave Memoirs by Europeans in North Africa. Ed. Mario Klarer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. 236-253.
- Annotated primary text translation from German into English: Andreas Matthäus and Johann Georg Wolffgang. “Travels and Wonderful Fortunes of Two Brothers in Algerian Bondage (1767).” Barbary Captives: An Anthology of Early Modern Slave Memoirs by Europeans in North Africa. Ed. Mario Klarer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. 191-199.
- (with Almyria Wilhelm) Translation of a scholarly article from German into English: Palm, Kurt. “Mozart, Islam, and the Hangman of Salzburg.” Mediterranean Slavery and World Literature: Captivity Genres from Cervantes to Rousseau. Ed. Mario Klarer. London: Routledge, 2020. 197-211.
- “Robin Hood, Broadside Ballad Categories and Diachronic Narratology” (Invited talk. LitCult Colloquium, Department of English. University of Freiburg, Germany. 26 November 2024)
- “Outsiders, Lawbreakers, Apostates, Witches: Figures of Transgression in Narrative English Broadside Ballads (1550-1800)” (Talk. FRIAS Colloquium, Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS). University of Freiburg, Germany. 17 July 2023)
- “Early Modern English Broadside Ballads about Non-normative Figures” (Talk. Visiting Scholars’ Centre, Weston Library. University of Oxford, UK. 30 June 2023)
- “Barbary Captivity and German Literature: Narrating Mediterranean Piracy and Slavery in Germany and Austria, 1550 – 1850” (Guest lecture. Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Harvard University, USA. 9 December 2021).