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Vierke_Clarissa1 Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke
Vierke_Clarissa1

Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages


Clarissa Vierke, born in 1979, has been professor of Literatures in African Languages at the University of Bayreuth since 2014. With a scholarship of the German National Merit Foundation, she studied African Languages, Anthropology and Literatures in African Languages at the University of Bayreuth and the Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. She wrote her PhD about the specific poetics of a narrative peotic genre from the Swahili Coast in Eastern Africa. Since then, she has worked on manuscript cultures in Eastern Africa and travelling texts along the East African Coast from Kenya to Mozambique and across the Indian Ocean. She has also expanded her interest in Aesthetics to focus on other poetic genres.

In 2012, she won the Wissenschaftspreis of the University of Bayreuth and the Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz-prize of the German Research Council (DFG).

Academic Degrees

2010 Doctorate: African Studies, BIGSAS, University of Bayreuth, supervisor: Prof. Dr. Said Khamis

1999 – 2005 Studies in African Studies, Social Anthropology and Literatures in African Languages, University of Bayreuth and Rijksuniversität Leiden

Professional Background

Since 2014Professor of Literatures in African Languages, University of Bayreuth 

2013 – 2014Visiting Professor, Department of Kiswahili and Other African Languages, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya

2010 – 2012 Assistant Professor („Akademische Rätin auf Zeit“) at the Institute of African Linguistics I, University of Bayreuth

2009 – 2010 Research Associate at the Institute of African Linguistics I, University of Bayreuth  

2006 – 2008 Scholarship of the German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des dt. Volkes) 

2005 – 2006 Research Associate; Institute of African Linguistics I (Prof. Dr. Gudrun Miehe), University of Bayreuth

                             

Other

Vierke_Clarissa1

Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages


I am a specialist of Swahili Language and Literature with an interest in more far-reaching literary connections and entanglements across the Indian Ocean and the African continent. My research has often taken a historical perspective: having widely worked on various poetic genres found in Swahili manuscripts of the 18th and 19th century. However, I have also extended my focus on contemporary poetry, like hiphop and newspaper poetry. A question that recurs throughout my research is how poetic form creates its powerful effect, echoes ideas of aesthetics, and shapes people’s lifeworlds. 

Research topics:

  • Comparative Literary Studies with a focus on Africa 
  • Swahili Literature and Popular Culture
  • Manuscript Cultures in Africa
  • Orality and Literacy
  • Poetics and Aesthetics
  • Travelling Texts in the Indian Ocean area
  • Swahili Intellectual History
  • Literature in Multi-lingual Contexts
  • Research History with respect to African Languages and Literatures

Regional:

  • Kenya
  • Mozambique
  • Tanzania

Current Research Project:

Vierke_Clarissa1

Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages


Publications

2024

Africa*n Relations : Modalities Reflected. - Clarissa Vierke, Rüdiger Seesemann, Lena Kroeker (Hrsg.). - Bayreuth : 2024. - VIII, 121 S.
doi:10.15495/EPub_UBT_00007499

Ute Fendler, Marie-Anne Kohl, Gilbert Shang Ndi, Christopher Joseph Odhiambo, Clarissa Vierke: Introduction. In: Ute Fendler, Marie-Anne Kohl, Gilbert Shang Ndi, Christopher Joseph Odhiambo, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Of Worlds and Artworks : A Relational View on Artistic Practices from Africa and the Diaspora. - Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2024. - S. 1-14.

Of Worlds and Artworks : A Relational View on Artistic Practices from Africa and the Diaspora. - Ute Fendler, Marie-Anne Kohl, Gilbert Shang Ndi, Christopher Joseph Odhiambo, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2024. - 292 S.

Clarissa Vierke: What is the Place of Local Swahili Poetry in the Grand Indian Ocean? Reading Ustadh Mahmoud Mau’s Poetry from Lamu from a Perspective of Dynamic Relations. In: Ute Fendeler, Yongkyu Chang (Hrsg.): Asia-Africa- Multifaceted Engagement in the Contemporary World. - Singapore : Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. - S. 35-64.
doi:10.1007/978-981-97-0696-9_3

Clarissa Vierke: Zanzibari Worlds : a Relational Reading of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea and Adam Shafi Adam’s Vuta n’kuvute. In: Ute Fendler, Marie-Anne Kohl, Gilbert Shang Ndi, Christopher Joseph Odhiambo, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Of Worlds and Artworks : A Relational View on Artistic Practices from Africa and the Diaspora. - Leiden : Brill, 2024. - S. 108-133.
doi:10.1163/9789004689756_008

2023

Ustadh Mahmoud Mau: In this Fragile World : Swahili Poetry of Commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau. - Annachiara Raia, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Leiden : Brill, 2023. - XVIII, 376 S.

Irene Brunotti, Serena Talento, Duncan Tarrant, Clarissa Vierke: Introduction. In: Swahili Forum, 30 (2023). - S. 1-23.

Annachiara Raia, Clarissa Vierke: Introduction. In: Annachiara Raia, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): In This Fragile World : Swahili Poetry of Commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau. - Leiden : Brill, 2023. - S. 1-8.
doi:10.1163/9789004525726_002

Clarissa Vierke: Of Patience and Pity : Rewriting and Reciting the Widely Travelled Islamic Poem “The Hawk and the Dove” in East Africa. In: Islamic Africa, 14 (2023). - S. 5-41.
doi:10.1163/21540993-20220003

Clarissa Vierke: “The Sea Cannot Be Spoken” : Thinking About Aesthetic Relations, the Poetics of Language(s) and Place Through Yvonne Owuor’s the Dragonfly Sea. In: Patrick Oloko, Michaela Ott, Peter Simatei, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Decolonial Aesthetics II : Modes of Relating. - Berlin ; Heidelberg : Metzler, 2023. - S. 189-202.
doi:10.1007/978-3-662-66222-9_17

Clarissa Vierke: “Born on the Island” : Situating Ustadh Mau’s Poetic Practice in Context. In: Annachiara Raia, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): In This Fragile World : Swahili Poetry of Commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau. - Leiden : Brill, 2023. - S. 41-68.
doi:10.1163/9789004525726_005

Clarissa Vierke: Bwana Mwengo bin Athman, The Epic of the Battle of Tabuk. In: Clinton Bennett, John Chesworth, Martha Frederiks, David D. Grafton, Stanisław Grodź, Douglas Pratt, Umar Ryad, David Thomas (Hrsg.): Christian-Muslim Relations : Primary Sources. Volume 3. 1700-1914. - New York : Bloomsbury, 2023. - S. 319-324.

Critical Swahili Studies. - Irene Brunotti, Serena Talento, Duncan Tarrant, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Swahili Forum, 30 (2023), Special Issue

Decolonial Aesthetics II : Modes of Relating. - Patrick Oloko, Michaela Ott, Peter Simatei, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Berlin ; Heidelberg : Metzler, 2023.
doi:10.1007/978-3-662-66222-9

Clarissa Vierke: How Ought We to Live? The Ethical and the Poetic in Ustadh Mahmoud Mau’s Poetry. In: Annachiara Raia, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): In This Fragile World : Swahili Poetry of Commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau. - Leiden : Brill, 2023. - S. 95-132.
doi:10.1163/9789004525726_007

2022

Kai Kresse, Clarissa Vierke: Swahili language and literature as resources for Indian Ocean studies. In: History Compass, 20 (2022). - .
doi:10.1111/hic3.12725

Clarissa Vierke: An Intimate “Range of Elsewhere” : Sensuous Imaginaries of the Indian Ocean in Precolonial Swahili Poetry. In: Comparative Literature, 74 (2022). - S. 156-170.
doi:10.1215/00104124-9594800

Clarissa Vierke, Chapane Mutiua: The Kaiser, Angoche and the World at Large : Swahili Poetry from Mozambique as World (War) Literature. In: Alexander Fyfe, Madhu Krishnan (Hrsg.): African Literatures as World Literature. - New York : Bloomsbury, 2022. - S. 91-113.

Clarissa Vierke: ‘Stringing Coral Beads’. (Rezension von: "Vianello, Alessandra ; Kapteijns, Lidwien ; Kassim, Mohamed (Hrsg.): ‘Stringing Coral Beads’ : the religious poetry of Brava (c.1890-1975) ; a source publication of Chimiini texts and English translations. Leiden ; Boston, 2018") In:The International Journal of African Historical Studies, S. 141-143: 2022

Clarissa Vierke: When the Emperor Travelled the Continent : On the Cosmopolis of Islamic Literature and its Adaptation into African languages. In: Susanne Gehrmann, Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong (Hrsg.): Crossings and Comparisons in African Literary and Cultural Studies. - Trier : WVT, 2022. - S. 13-37.

2021

Clarissa Vierke: Foreword. - Bayreuth, 2021. -

One Text – Many Forms : A Comparative View on the Variability of Swahili Manuscripts. - Ridder H. Samsom, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Manuscript Cultures, 17 (2021),

Ridder H. Samsom, Clarissa Vierke: One Text, Many Forms : A Comparative View of the Variability of Swahili Manuscripts. In: Manuscript Cultures, 17 (2021). - S. 2-12.

Clarissa Vierke: Writing Songs, Singing Texts : Orality and Literacy in Swahili Manuscripts. In: Manuscript Cultures, 17 (2021). - S. 87-104.

2020

Clarissa Vierke: Boarding a Full Bus. In: Matatu : Journal for African Culture and Society, 51 (2020). - S. 94-117.
doi:10.1163/18757421-05101001

Clarissa Vierke, Chapane Mutiua: The Poem about the Prophet’s Death in Mozambique : Swahili as a Transregional Language of Islamic Poetry. In: Journal for Islamic Studies, 38 (2020). - S. 44-74.

Clarissa Vierke: Poetry. In: Rainer Vossen, Gerrit Dimmendaal (Hrsg.): The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020. - S. 1016-1025.
doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199609895.013.5

Texts Travelling Beyond the West. - Annachiara Raia, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Asian Journal of African Studies, 48 (2020),

Clarissa Vierke, Annachiara Raia: Texts Travelling Beyond the West : An Introduction. In: Asian Journal of African Studies, 48 (2020). - S. 1-30.

2019

Clarissa Vierke: Frau Betelpfeffer und die lustvollen Stunden : Die Inszenierung sinnlicher Erfahrung, Erinnerung und Erwartung in früher Swahili-Dichtung. In: Caspar Battegay, Lena Henningsen, Kai Wiegandt (Hrsg.): Gegessen? Essen und Erinnerung in den Literaturen der Welt. - Berlin : Neofelis, 2019. - S. 125-148.

Clarissa Vierke: Intervention, Patronage and Performance : A Foreword. In: Matatu : Journal for African Culture and Society, 51 (2019). - S. 4-10.
doi:10.1163/18757421-05101003

Clarissa Vierke: The Making of the “Classical” Utenzi : a Consideration of the Early Editorial History of Tenzi in 19th-20th Century Europe. In: Flavia Aiello, Roberto Gaudioso (Hrsg.): Lugha na Fasihi : Scritti in onore e memoria di Essays in honour and memory of Elena Bertoncini-Zúbková. - Neapel : Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, 2019. - S. 33-58.

Clarissa Vierke: Other Worlds : The “Prophet’s Ascension” as World Literature and its Adaptation in Swahili-speaking East Africa. In: Dieter Lamping, Galin Tihanov (Hrsg.): Vergleichende Weltliteraturen = Comparative World Literatures : DFG-Symposion 2018. - Stuttgart : Metzler, 2019. - S. 219-233.
doi:10.1007/978-3-476-04925-4_15

2018

Clarissa Vierke: Bwana Mwengo bin Athman. In: David Thomas (Hrsg.): Christian Muslim Relations Online II. - Leiden : Brill, 2018. - S. 777-781.
doi:10.1163/2451-9537_cmrii_COM_28459

Clarissa Vierke: Utendi wa Tambuka. In: David Thomas (Hrsg.): Christian Muslim Relations Online II. - Leiden : Brill, 2018.
doi:10.1163/2451-9537_cmrii_COM_28460

2017

Clarissa Vierke, Flora Veit-Wild: Introduction : Digging into Language. In: Research in African Literatures, 48 (2017). - S. 9-18.
doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.48.1.01

Mosol Kandagor, Nathan O. Ogechi, Clarissa Vierke: Lugha na fasihi katika karne ya ishirini na moja : kwa heshima ya marehemu Profesa Naoma Luchera Shitemi. - Eldoret, Kenya : Moi University Press, 2017.

Clarissa Vierke: The Making of the ‘Classical’ Utenzi : a Consideration of the Early Editorial History of Tenzi in the 19th and 20th Century. In: Mosol Kandagor, Nathan O. Ogechi, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Lugha na fasihi katika karne ya ishirini na moja : kwa heshima ya marehemu Profesa Naoma Luchera Shitemi. - Eldoret, Kenya : Moi University Press, 2017. - S. 113-130.

Clarissa Vierke: Poetic Links across the Ocean : On Poetic ‘Translation’ as Mimetic Practice at the Swahili Coast. In: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 37 (2017). - S. 321-335.
doi:10.1215/1089201x-4132941

Reading Closely : Investigating Textuality in Afrophone Literatures. - Clarissa Vierke, Flora Veit-Wild (Hrsg.). - Research in African Literatures, 48 (2017), 1

Clarissa Vierke: "What Is There In My Speaking" : Re-Explorations of Language in Abdilatif Abdalla's Anthology of Prison Poetry, Sauti Ya Dhiki. In: Research in African Literatures, 48 (2017). - S. 135-157.
doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.48.1.09

2016

Clarissa Vierke, Katharina Greven: Critical Visions of the Future in Swahili Fiction. In: Clarissa Vierke, Katharina Greven (Hrsg.): Dunia Yao - Utopia/Dystopia in Swahili Fiction : in Honour of Said A. M. Khamis. - Köln : Köppe, 2016. - S. 7-25.

Dunia Yao - Utopia/Dystopia in Swahili Fiction : in honour of Said A. M. Khamis. - Clarissa Vierke, Katharina Greven (Hrsg.). - Köln : Köppe, 2016.

Clarissa Vierke: From across the Ocean : Considering Travelling Literary figurations as Part of Swahili Intellectual History. In: Journal of African Cultural Studies, 28 (2016). - S. 225-240.
doi:10.1080/13696815.2015.1053800

Clarissa Vierke: The ‘Unhomely’ City : a Literary Figuration in Swahili Dystopian Literature. In: Clarissa Vierke, Katharina Greven (Hrsg.): Dunia Yao - Utopia/Dystopia in Swahili Fiction : in Honour of Said A. M. Khamis. - Cologne : Köppe, 2016. - S. 75-91.

2015

Clarissa Vierke: Comparing the Incomparable? on the poetic use of language in Swahili Hip-Hop and "Classical" Swahili Poetry. In: Lutz Diegner, Frank Schulze-Engler (Hrsg.): Habari ya English? What about Kiswahili? : East Africa as a Literary and Linguistic Contact Zone. - Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2015. - S. 81.

Clarissa Vierke: Some Remarks on Poetic Aspects of Sheng. In: Nico Nassenstein, Andrea Hollington (Hrsg.): Youth language practices in Africa and beyond. - Berlin : De Gruyter, 2015. - S. 227-255.

2014

Clarissa Vierke: Akhi patia kalamu : Writing Swahili Poetry in Arabic Script. In: Meikal Mumin, Kees Versteegh (Hrsg.): Arabic Script in Africa : studies in the use of a writing system. - Leiden : Brill, 2014. - S. 319-342.

Clarissa Vierke: "Im Gebälk die Fledermäuse" : Figurationen der Vergänglichkeit und der Täuschung in der klassischen Swahili-Dichtung. In: Hannelore Vögele, Uta Reuster-Jahn, Raimund Kastenholz, Lutz Diegner (Hrsg.): From the Tana River to Lake Chad : research in african oratures and literatures ; in memoriam Thomas Geider. - Köln : Köppe, 2014. - S. 285-309.

Clarissa Vierke: Seydou, Christiane (Hrsg.): La poésie mystique peule du Mali : Tradition Orale. Paris, 2008. In:Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 15, S. 286-292: 2014
doi:10.3366/jqs.2013.0124

Clarissa Vierke: Zur Forschungsgeschichte der deutschen Afrikanistik, ihre Anfänge und Ausrichtung, am Beispiel der Swahili-Forschung. In: Michel Espagne, Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn, David Simo (Hrsg.): Afrikanische Deutschland-Studien und deutsche Afrikanistik. - Würzburg : Königshausen und Neumann, 2014. - S. 73-92.

2013

Clarissa Vierke: Préface : L'Histoire de la langue Swahili de David Massamba dans l'histoire de la recherche et dans le contexte national. In: David Massamba (Hrsg.): Histoire de la langue Swahili : de 50 à 1500 après J.-C.. - Paris : Karthala, 2013. - S. 5-16.

Clarissa Vierke: Préface: Localiser Histoire du Swahili de David Massamba dans le contexte des recherches et dans le discours sur l’identité nationale (Übersetzung vom Englischen ins Französische von Alain Ricard). In: Histoire de la langue swahili : de 50 à 1500 après J.-C. / David Massamba ; traduit du swahili par François Devenne. - Paris : 2013.

2012

Clarissa Vierke: Mafumbo : Considering the Functions of Metaphorical Speech in Swahili Contexts. In: Michael R. Marlo, Nikki B. Adams, Christopher R. Green, Michelle Morrison, Tristan M. Purvis (Hrsg.): Selected Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics : African languages in context. - Somerville : Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 2012. - S. 278-290.

2011

Clarissa Vierke:On the poetics of the Utendi : a critical edition of the nineteenth-century Swahili poem "Utendi wa Haudaji" together with a stylistic analysis. - Zürich: Lit, 2011.
(Dissertation, 2011, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies - BIGSAS)

Clarissa Vierke: On the Poetics of the Utendi : A Critical Edition of the Nineteenth-Century Swahilin Poem "Utendi wa Haudaji" together with a Stylistic Analysis. - Berlin : LIT, 2011. - XVIII, 704 S.

Speech Acts and Speech Events in African Languages. - Gabriele Sommer, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Köln : Köppe, 2011.

Clarissa Vierke, Gabriele Sommer: Speech Acts and Speech Events in African Languages. In: Gabriele Sommer, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Speech Acts and Speech Events in African Languages. - Köln : Köppe, 2011. - S. 11-40.

2010

Clarissa Vierke: Between the Lines : Life and Work of the Lamuan Artist and Cultural Broker Muhamadi Kijuma. In: Gudrun Miehe, Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Muhamadi Kijuma : Texts from the Dammann Papers and other Collections. - Köln : Köppe, 2010. - S. 41-62.

Gudrun Miehe, Clarissa Vierke: Muhamadi Kijuma : texts from the Dammann papers and other collections. - Köln : Köppe, 2010. - 532 S.

2009

Clarissa Vierke: Johann L. Krapf : His Life and Work in Context. In: Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Johann Ludwig Krapf : The Life and Work of a Missionary and Scholar-Traveller in Nineteenth-Century East Africa ; Proceedings of the Workshop on Life and Work of Johann Ludwig Krapf, Mombasa, September 11, 2007. - Nairobi : Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2009. - S. 28-49.

Johann Ludwig Krapf : The Life and Work of a Missionary and Scholar-Traveller in Nineteenth-Century East Africa ; Proceedings of the Workshop on Life and Work of Johann Ludwig Krapf, Mombasa, September 11, 2007. - Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.). - Nairobi : Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2009.

Ahmed S. Nabahany: Utenzi wa Mapisi ya Johann Ludwig Krapf wa Ujerumani : Poem about the Life of Johann Ludwig Krapf from Germany. In: Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Johann Ludwig Krapf : The Life and Work of a Missionary and Scholar-Traveller in Nineteenth-Century East Africa ; Proceedings of the Workshop on Life and Work of Johann Ludwig Krapf, Mombasa, September 11, 2007.. - Nairobi : Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2009. - S. 14-26.

Clarissa Vierke: "Words do neither take roots not bear fruits in our country" : Johann Ludwig Krapf's Role as Pioneer Grammarian of Swahili. In: Clarissa Vierke (Hrsg.): Johann Ludwig Krapf : The Life and Work of a Missionary and Scholar-Traveller in Nineteenth-Century East Africa ; Proceedings of the Workshop on Life and Work of Johann Ludwig Krapf, Mombasa, September 11, 2007. - Nairobi : Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2009. - S. 142-156.

2007

Clarissa Vierke: Of Plants and Women : A Working Edition of two Swahili Plant Poems. In: Swahili Forum, 14 (2007). - S. 27-80.

2006

Clarissa Vierke: Inkishafi kwa mara nyingine : Erste Schritte zu einer neuen Textedition. In: Kerstin Winkelmann, Dymitr Ibriszimow (Hrsg.): Zwischen Bantu und Burkina : Festschrift für Gudrun Miehe zum 65. Geburtstag. - Köln : Köppe, 2006. - S. 23-44.

2004

Liyongo songs : Poems attributed to Fumo Liyongo. - Gudrun Miehe, Abdilatif Abdalla, Ahmad Nassir Juma Bhalo, Ahmed Nabahany, Angelica Baschiera, Clarissa Dittemer, Farouk Topan, Mohamed H. Abdulaziz, Said A. M. Khamis, Yahya Ali Omar, Zeina Mahmoud Fadhil Al-Bakary (Hrsg.). - Köln : Köppe, 2004. - VIII, 230 S.

Vierke_Clarissa1

Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages


Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke
Professor for Literatures in African Languages

University of Bayreuth 
Literatures in African languages 
95440 Bayreuth 
Room: Room: 1.10 (GW I)
Fax: +49 (0)921 / 55-3641​

Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-3550
E-mail: clarissa.vierke@uni-bayreuth.de

Webmaster: Olutosin Akinwumi

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