Dr Hyun Seon Lee

PD Dr. Hyunseon Lee studied Modern German Literature, Film, Theatre and TV Studies and Korean Literature at Yonsei University in Seoul, Ruhr-University Bochum and FU Berlin.

She received her PhD on the discourses of confession in East German literature with a distinction at the University of Dortmund. She achieved her ‘Habilitation’ (German professorial degree) with a work on’ Metamorphoses of Madame Butterfly’ at the University of Siegen in 2013, where she is a Privatdozent in Modern German Literature/ Media Studies.

She has held various scholarships and fellowships at Siegen University (Germany), Seoul National University (South Korea), Columbia University (New York) and Chuo University (Tokyo) and at the IGRS, University of London, and lectured widely in the fields of literature, film, media and cultural studies.

Her publications include “Metamorphoses of Madame Butterfly. Intercultural love affairs between literature, opera and film“ (Heidelberg: University Press Winter, forthcoming), and books „Geständniszwang und 'Wahrheit des Charakters' in der Literatur der DDR. Diskursanalytische Fallstudien“ (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 2000) and „Hyunseon Lee: Günter de Bruyn - Christoph Hein - Heiner Müller. 3 Interviews”(1996). She is also an editor of books “Opera, Exoticism and Visual Culture” (2015), Murderesses” (2013) and “Akira Kurosawa and His Time” (2005).

Her recent research interests focus on the Cold War culture, media and gender (Korea/ Germany), martial arts film, shamanism and Korean visual culture, film and history with a focus on Korean cinema, and North Korean film and opera performance.

Film, Media and Literature – currently focusing on the Cold War culture, media and gender (Korea/Germany), martial arts film, shamanism and Korean visual culture, film and history with a focus on Korean peninsula cinema, and North Korean film and opera performance.

Aesthetics and theories of film, media and culture, modern German literature, comparative media, literary and cultural studies (particularly between Europe and East Asia), global popular culture, and music theatre.