Professor Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly
Professor of German Literature; Emeritus Fellow of Exeter College
About
Professor Watanabe-O'Kelly's main research interests are in German literature and culture from the late 15th to the early 18th centuries within their European context, in women's writing in all periods and in the representation of women in German literature and culture. She has made a special study of early modern court festivals of all kinds throughout Europe and of court culture. She is currently leading the research project 'Marrying Cultures: Queens Consort and European Identities, 1500-1800'.
Expertise
- German studies in all its aspects
- Gender and feminism, especially the representation of women and death
- Early modern German literature and culture
- European court culture
- Literary and intellectual history
Selected publications
- Beauty or Beast? The Woman Warrior in the German Imagination from the Renaissance to the Present (2010)
- Women and Death: Warlike Women in the German Literary and Cultural Imagination since 1500 (2009)
Media experience
Professor Watanabe-O'Kelly has media experience, including print and broadcast.