This project dealt with the genre of the writer’s speech in German-speaking modernism. It mapped the extensive speech landscape that developed in Germany and Austria from the end of the 19th century onward. The fruits of this project included a database with over 1400 speeches of 123 German and Austrian writers. At the centre of this project was an enquiry into the intellectual role of writers speaking in public. By assuming this intellectual role in their speeches, writers were able to transcend the literary field in order to talk not only about the arts in general, but also about politics, economics, the social situation in the turbulent interwar years or any other topic conceivable. Apart from serving these reflexive aims, writers’ speeches also supported many modernist authors’ claims to singularity (to originality, authenticity, fame, etc.) by extending the range of these claims from the literary field to society at large. Particular attention was paid to the generic characteristics of the writer’s speech as well as to its function within a society in which other (newer) media were gaining ground.

Selected article output:

• De Beun, C. De Cauwer, S. (2016). „Schriftstellerreden“/„Schriftsteller rede(te)n“: Eine herausfordernde Kombination. Orbis Litterarum 71 (1), 1–32,
• de Beun, C. (2015). Gerhart Hauptmanns tweede Amerikareis (1932). De auteur als redenaar en nationaal boegbeeld. Vooys 33 (1), 19-37.  
• Bru, S., Gilleir, A. (2015). 'Sagen': Brecht's Aesthetic of Public Address. Affirmations: of the modern 3 (1), 9-31
• de Beun, C. (2014). The Dichtung und Rundfunk Conference: Medial Configurations of Speech Networks. SoundEffects 4 (1), 66-8.

PhD. Thesis:

de Beun, C., Bru, S. (sup.), Gilleir, A. (cosup.) (2017). Schriftstellerreden 1880-1938: Intellektuelle, Interdiskurse, Institutionen, Medien.