Dr. Sabine Narr-Leute

Sabine Narr-Leute is a postdoctoral researcher in Saarland University's French and Italian Literary Studies research group and, since August 2025, an affiliated postdoctoral researcher at the Saarbrücken Graduate School for European Research. In her postdoctoral research project 'Konstruktionen des Orients in der französischen und italienischen Literatur des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit', Narr-Leute examines European texts that look at encounters with the world of the 'others'. The focus of the project is medieval and early modern French and Italian literature in which the East first begins to become an object of fascination. The research project comprises a body of literary texts from a span of 500 years, analysing to what extent representations and images of the 'other' constitute projections of one's own national and/or transnational European identity. The texts offer a literary interpretation of European history. On one hand, they centre figures such as Charlemagne, founding father of Europe, or Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily. At the same time, they explore historical events – such as Charlemagne's expeditions and the Crusades – as well as fictional battles set in Europe that have shaped the cultural understanding of their settings. Through these explorations, the project contributes to the better understanding of the literary, cultural and historical roots of European identities.

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