Kristian Svane

Areas of Interest

20th and 21st Century Literature, Literary Sociology (with a focus on German, Scandinavian and French literatures), Literary Theory, Narratology, Critical Theory, Autobiography

Bio

Kristian joined the German Studies department in 2024. Before coming to Yale, he studied German Literature at Washington University in St. Louis, Teaching, History, German at the University of Hamburg (B.A. 2021), and Media Studies and Computer Science at the University of Cologne. He earned his Master’s degree in German Literature at the University of Hamburg in 2024.

His work explores the intersection between sociology and literature in contemporary writing from Denmark, France, and Germany, focusing on marginalized and neglected literary voices. At Yale, he seeks to explore the political and social imaginary in the works of 20th-century modernism and to inquire into potentials and affordances of poetic alterity. Centrally, he asks how the novel’s formal dissolution opens up literary space for new social relationalities.