Simone Müller

Simone Müller is an Adjunct Professor and Teaching and Research Fellow in Japanese Studies at the University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She serves as project leader for the SNSF project "Time and Emotion in Medieval Japanese Literature" and has established herself as a leading scholar in pre-modern Japanese literature, particularly focusing on poetry, as well as Japanese intellectual history of the interwar and postwar periods.

Her research interests include:

• Pre-modern Japanese literature with special focus on poetry and dream narratives
• Japanese intellectual discourse, particularly the concept of intellectuals (chishikijin) in modern Japan
• Sartre's reception in Japan and existentialist thought in Japanese literature
• Time and emotion in medieval Japanese literature
• Gender perspectives in classical Japanese literature

Müller's scholarly work demonstrates a consistent engagement with the intersection of Japanese literature and European philosophical traditions, particularly existentialism. Her recent publications focus on temporal representation in medieval court diaries like Utatane, the concept of the "superfluous intellectual" in modern Japanese literature, and the reception of Sartrean philosophy in postwar Japan. She has edited several important volumes on time in premodern Japanese literature and on Asia-Europe connections.

Among her major scholarly achievements is her habilitation project "Das zerrissene Bewusstsein: Wiederholung und Differenz im japanischen Intellektuellendiskurs (chishikijin ron) der Zwischen- und Nachkriegszeit" (completed in 2012), which examines the intellectual discourse in modern Japan, and her monograph "Sehnsucht nach Illusion? Klassische japanische Traumlyrik aus geschlechtsspezifischer und literaturgeschichtlicher Perspektive" (2005) on classical Japanese dream poetry from gender and literary historical perspectives.

Müller has been an active participant in the academic community, presenting at numerous conferences and workshops internationally. Her presentations often focus on Japanese intellectual history, the reception of European thought in Japan, and aspects of pre-modern Japanese literature. She has organized and chaired several conference sections, demonstrating leadership within her field.