Dr. Elke Koch

Biography

Elke Koch is a Professor of Medieval German Literature and Language at Freie Universität Berlin. She studied German philology, English philology, and political science in Marburg and Berlin after which she worked as a research associate in the Collaborative Research Centre 'Cultures of the Performative'. Since her promotion in 2004, she has contributed significantly to the field of German medieval studies. Her interests include medieval religious literature, the poetics of performative aspects of religious drama, and the emotionality of literature from the Middle Ages. She has published extensively, exploring thematic areas such as hagiography, emotional narratives, and the interplay of literature and ritual in contexts of historical anthropology. Her influential works include studies on the dynamics of grief and identity in 12th and 13th-century literature and the development of concepts regarding religious narration. Currently, she is also involved in examining the poetics of emotion in medieval literary texts and preparing research on the role of sermons in medieval culture.

Research Interests

Experience

Courses