Rebecca Merkelbach

Rebecca Merkelbach is an Assistant Professor and head of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Tübingen since October 2021. Her research focuses on narrative structures in late medieval Scandinavian literature, particularly the 'post-classical' Íslendingasögur. She employs narratological and cultural studies approaches to analyze character construction, paranormal elements, gender representation, alterity, and emotion in saga literature.

• University of Tübingen, Faculty of Humanities
• PhD in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge (2017)

Merkelbach's work bridges literary analysis with socio-cultural contexts, emphasizing world-building and kaleidoscopic narration. Her DFG-funded project (project no. 400154111) examined late medieval Icelandic sagas, culminating in the monograph Story, World and Character in the Late Íslendingasögur: Rogue Sagas (2024). She also contributes to the SFB 1391: Andere Ästhetik, analyzing saga structures through innovative narrative frameworks.

Recent publications include analyses of revenants, emotional expression, spatial belonging, and object-based narration in medieval texts. Her methodological toolkit combines traditional philology with modern theoretical approaches like storyworld theory and cognitive narratology.

Scientific Awards

• Snorri Sturluson Fellow, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar (2021)