DELC Research Seminar Series: Conor Brennan In brief Date - 20 March 2026Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Dr Conor Brennan (University of Galway)Title - Ecocritical Approaches to Franz Kafka About the eventFranz Kafka is not your average nature writer. Readers the world over are more likely to think of him as an existentialist than an environmentalist. And yet many of the questions that shaped his stories and novel fragments are those that most preoccupy ecological thinkers today: questions of species boundaries and interspecies kinship; instinct and artifice; agency, denial and guilt.This talk will outline some of the most compelling ways in which Kafka’s work can be read ecocritically. Focal points will include the engagement with animal experience and nonhuman creativity in the unfinished story ‘Der Bau’ [‘The Burrow’]; the particular version of vegetarianism we encounter in Kafka’s diaries and letters; and the vivid representation of psychological denial we find in his works, anticipating contemporary responses to the climate and biodiversity crises.This talk will be in English and followed by a Q&A.About the speakerDr Conor Brennan is a Lecturer in German at the University of Galway, Ireland. He holds a BA and PhD from Trinity College Dublin and an MSt from the University of Oxford, where he worked as a lecturer and postdoctoral research fellow from 2023-25. He has published on various topics in literary ecocriticism and on authors including Franz Kafka, Ingeborg Bachmann, Christoph Ransmayr, Richard Flanagan and Olga Tokarczuk.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required - just come along!About the seminar seriesThe DELC Research Seminar Series (DRSS) encourages collaboration and coproduction between staff and students across European Languages and Cultures and beyond.Entry is free and everyone is welcome. No registration is necessary.Are you interested in studying European Languages and Cultures?Our interdisciplinary environment brings together specialists in nine European languages, and the many cultures worldwide in which they're spoken, with experts in film, literature, theatre, translation and intermediality. Working with colleagues elsewhere in LLC, and across the wider University, we are able to support research which crosses boundaries between disciplines and/or languages. Find out more about studying with us Tags European Languages and Cultures German Mar 20 2026 12.00 - 13.00 DELC Research Seminar Series: Conor Brennan An in-person seminar by Dr Conor Brennan (University of Galway) on the ways in which Franz Kafka can be viewed through an ecocritical lens, focusing on his vegetarianism and unfinished story 'Der Bau/The Burrow'. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square
DELC Research Seminar Series: Conor Brennan In brief Date - 20 March 2026Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Dr Conor Brennan (University of Galway)Title - Ecocritical Approaches to Franz Kafka About the eventFranz Kafka is not your average nature writer. Readers the world over are more likely to think of him as an existentialist than an environmentalist. And yet many of the questions that shaped his stories and novel fragments are those that most preoccupy ecological thinkers today: questions of species boundaries and interspecies kinship; instinct and artifice; agency, denial and guilt.This talk will outline some of the most compelling ways in which Kafka’s work can be read ecocritically. Focal points will include the engagement with animal experience and nonhuman creativity in the unfinished story ‘Der Bau’ [‘The Burrow’]; the particular version of vegetarianism we encounter in Kafka’s diaries and letters; and the vivid representation of psychological denial we find in his works, anticipating contemporary responses to the climate and biodiversity crises.This talk will be in English and followed by a Q&A.About the speakerDr Conor Brennan is a Lecturer in German at the University of Galway, Ireland. He holds a BA and PhD from Trinity College Dublin and an MSt from the University of Oxford, where he worked as a lecturer and postdoctoral research fellow from 2023-25. He has published on various topics in literary ecocriticism and on authors including Franz Kafka, Ingeborg Bachmann, Christoph Ransmayr, Richard Flanagan and Olga Tokarczuk.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required - just come along!About the seminar seriesThe DELC Research Seminar Series (DRSS) encourages collaboration and coproduction between staff and students across European Languages and Cultures and beyond.Entry is free and everyone is welcome. No registration is necessary.Are you interested in studying European Languages and Cultures?Our interdisciplinary environment brings together specialists in nine European languages, and the many cultures worldwide in which they're spoken, with experts in film, literature, theatre, translation and intermediality. Working with colleagues elsewhere in LLC, and across the wider University, we are able to support research which crosses boundaries between disciplines and/or languages. Find out more about studying with us Tags European Languages and Cultures German Mar 20 2026 12.00 - 13.00 DELC Research Seminar Series: Conor Brennan An in-person seminar by Dr Conor Brennan (University of Galway) on the ways in which Franz Kafka can be viewed through an ecocritical lens, focusing on his vegetarianism and unfinished story 'Der Bau/The Burrow'. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square
Mar 20 2026 12.00 - 13.00 DELC Research Seminar Series: Conor Brennan An in-person seminar by Dr Conor Brennan (University of Galway) on the ways in which Franz Kafka can be viewed through an ecocritical lens, focusing on his vegetarianism and unfinished story 'Der Bau/The Burrow'.
