Ann-Katrin Preis, M.A.

Curriculum Vitæ

Ann-Katrin Preis studied English and American Studies, Philosophy, and English Literatures and Media at the University of Erfurt, University College Dublin, and the University of Trier. Since April 2022, she has been working as a lecturer (‘wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin’) at the department of English Literary Studies at the University of Erfurt. She is currently working on a PhD project with the working title “Human-Plant Relationships in Contemporary British Poetry.”

PhD Project: Abstract

My project investigates the relationship between plants and humans in the poetic works of Kathleen Jamie and Alice Oswald. The analysis takes its cue from critical plant scholars like Michael Marder, Natania Meeker, and Antónia Szabari, who argue that the plant constantly oscillates between disclosing itself as an agent in its own right and retreating into obscurity so as to never be graspable for humans. Analogously, I argue that eco-poetry echoes and exposes these tensions between connectedness and distance rather than filling the ontological gap via literary speculation. Jamie and Oswald have written widely on the more-than-human, including plants, and their respective approaches to the vegetal underscore a range of diverse aspects. Yet, what unites the works of the two poets, despite their differing approaches, is the fact that their poetry reproduces the ambivalence that lies at the heart of human-plant relationships.

Research Interests

• Contemporary English Poetry
• Nature Writing
• New Materialism
• Ecocriticism and Critical Plant Theory
• Feminist Theory

Teaching

• Introduction to British Gothic Fiction (SS 2022 and SS 2023)
• Gender on Stage: (Proto)Feminist British Drama (SS 2022 and WS 2024)
• Nature Writing and Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene (WS 2023)
• Detective Fiction and Neurodiversity (SS 2024 and WS 2025)

Publications

Articles

2024. "At War with the Seasons: Wilfred Owen's 'Exposure' and 'Spring Offensive.'" In New Materialist Literary Theory, edited by Kerstin Howaldt and Kai Merten, 137-152. Lenham, London, etc.: Lexington Books.

2025. "Vegetal Agency and Ecofeminist Resistance: Daphne du Maurier's 'The Apple Tree.'" In Menschen-Pflanzen-Netzwerke. Vegetabile Agency in der Klimakatastrophe, edited by Vanessa-Nadine Sternath, Silvie Lang, and Christine Riess, 109-130. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.

 
Reviews

2022. "'The Second Sex' Writes Back: Jillian Cantor's Beautiful Little Fools." LIT ERA TUR 4: 27-28.

2024. "Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day: Of Misogyny and Men." LIT ERA TUR 6: 17-18.

2025. "Sort of Books and a Sort of Novel: Michelle de Kretser's Theory & Practice." LIT ERA TUR 7: 38-39.

Conference Presentations

"Critical Plant Theory and Contemporary Ecopoetry." Presentation held at the Regional Colloquy, University of Erfurt, 12.04.2024

"Speaking Plantscapes: Reclaiming the Vegetal Landscape in Contemporary Scottish Poetry." Presentation held at the Conference Re-Reading British and Irish Landscapes in the 21^st Century, University of Mannheim, 14.-15.06.2024

"Fleeting Subjects: Kathleen Jamie's and Alice Oswald's Contemporary Plant Poetics." Presentation held at the Doctoral Symposium, The European Society for the Study of English 2024 Conference, University of Lausanne, 27-28.08.2024