Dr Niklas Fischer

Dr Niklas Fischer [press n]

I am interested in how we use language to make ourselves understood, and I approach this question from different angles:

As an educator [press e] I provide guidance in how to use language more clearly and efficiently.
As a translator [press t] I apply the method of transliteration to make English-language contexts accessible to German-reading audiences and vice versa.
As a literary scholar [press s] I take particular interest in the notions of style and expression as well as the contrast between poetic and non-poetic language.

Contact:

mail@niklasfischer.ch

Blog

Literary scholar

[c]

I completed my BA and MA in English and German at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and hold a PhD in English from the University of Sydney. I was the recipient of a Swiss National Science Foundation post-doctoral research grant from 2020 to 2021 and have been teaching English literature at the University of Fribourg since 2019. My interests span modernism, contemporary literature, sound studies, and literary stylistics. I currently am working on a monograph on E.M. Forster that brings together these interests in an investigation of the historical and contemporary appeal of Forster’s particular style.

Recent Publications

Fischer, Niklas Cyril. “Migrations of Sound: Listening and Intersubjectivity in Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire and Chuck Palahniuk’s The Invention of Sound.” Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature, edited by Michael C. Frank and Daniel Schreier. Heidelberg: Winter, 2022. [Read PDF]
Fischer, Niklas Cyril. “Slipping in the Inaudible: Making Sense of Deictic Words in The Voyage Out.” Woolf Studies Annual, vol. 28 (2022): 25–46.
Fischer, Niklas Cyril. “E.M. Forster, Realism, and the Style of Progressive Nostalgia.” Journal of Modern Literature vol. 45, no. 2 (2022): 69–81.
Fischer, Niklas Cyril. “Guilt Style: Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts and E.M. Forster’s Legacy in the Age of Autofiction.” Polish Journal of English Studies, vol. 7, no. 2 (2021): 176–93. [Read PDF]

Translator

[c]

I have been working as a translator and editor since 2018 with an emphasis on literature as well as academic and journalistic texts relating to the arts and contemporary technology. My translation philosophy is based on a paradox every multilingual speaker experiences sooner or later: to reproduce the meaning of something in another language often means to say it (almost) completely differently. This provides opportunities for creatively exploring the gap between languages.

Selected Projects

E.M. Forster, Die längste Reise, Nagel & Kimche (forthcoming 2025)
E.M. Forster. Brauchen wir Kultur? Nagel & Kimche (2024).
Stephan Wittmer (Hg.), Tin Can, Vexer, 2022
Raffael Dörig und Flo Kaufmann (Hg.), H.o.Me. – Heim für obsolete Medien, Christoph Merian Verlag, 2021
Marc Schwegler, On The Potential Of Limited Order, Präsens Editionen, 2020
Eva-Maria Knüsel (Hg.), Lotta Gadola: Traces in Sight, Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2019

Educator

[c]

I have been teaching tutorials and courses in English language and literature at all levels (high school, higher education, continuing education) in Australia and Switzerland since 2012. I am particularly interested in making complicated ways of writing and speaking accessible to students. I pursue a discussion-centred approach in a welcoming and respectful atmosphere. Group work and hands-on exercises constitute core elements of my teaching philosophy.

I discuss my thoughts on teaching in more detail in an interview with Unimix, the University of Fribourg's radio station, conducted in November 2022.

Courses

Proficiency for English Specialists, University of Fribourg, Spring Semester 2023, Level: BA
Censored and Banned: What Makes Literature Dangerous, University of Fribourg, Spring Semester 2023, Level: BA
Hamlet: Haunting Literary History, University of Fribourg, Spring Semester 2023, Level: MA
Introduction to Literary Studies, University of Fribourg, Autumn Semester 2021/2022, Level: BA
Contemporary Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and Ali Smiths Seasonal Quartet, University of Fribourg, Spring Semester 2022, Level: MA
Writing for Academic Purposes, University of Fribourg, Autumn Semester 2021, Level: BA
The Contemporary Novel, University of Fribourg, Autumn Semester 2019, Level: MA