Prof. Dr. Sabine Friedrich

As a Romance Studies professor with a focus on literary and cultural studies, I have analyzed the relationship between literatures and different publics for several years with different research foci. On the one hand, I analyse new narrative formats that are becoming increasingly widespread in contemporary literature under the influence of media change and that are at the same time accompanied by changed conditions of reception. In the inter- or transmedial story worlds, the conventions of fictional communication are often broken and great demands are made on the media competence of the audience. The shift of narratives into digital formats results in fundamental changes with regard to the possibilities of participation. Fictional characters communicate with each other on social media accounts, but also with the user.

On the other hand, I am concerned with contemporary formats of docufiction, which are very present in the current mediation of history. Especially in view of their immense popularity, the question arises as to what possibilities cinematic and textual docufiction can or may assume within the framework of historiography. On the one hand, it is possible to generate greater emotional involvement and thus greater interest in historiographical topics through the design of fictional diegesis; on the other hand, docufiction raises the question of manipulability, historiographical honesty and ethical responsibility in a novel way. Finally, I examine the emergence and impact of scandals in contemporary culture. I am particularly interested in the interactions between virulent social discussions and the provocation potential generated in the context of artistic treatments of these discussions.in contemporary cultural life. I am particularly interested in the interactions between virulent social discussions and the potential for provocation generated in the context of artistic treatments of these discussions.

Selected publications in the field of literature and the public sphere:

Semifiktionen. Hybrides Erzählen im digitalen Zeitalter. Berlin: Metzler Verlag, 2025. (Literatur und Öffentlichkeit /Literature and the Public Sphere, Bd. 2)

“Transformationen von Literatur in Zeiten postdigitaler Öffentlichkeiten“, In: Aida Bosch/Antje Kley (Hrsg.): Literatur und mediale Öffentlichkeiten. Orientierende Fallstudien, Berlin: J.B. Metzler, 2025, S. 49-81. (Literatur und Öffentlichkeit/Literature and the Public Sphere, Bd.1)