UW German Studies faculty continue to push forward the disciplines of literary and cultural studies. You can follow their exciting research on individual professors’ faculty pages.
In 2023, UW faculty were invited to be guest editors by three leading journals in German Studies. The Special Issues they produced show off the breadth and depth of the department’s research. In each case, the Special Issue challenges conventional assumptions about well-trodden fields: Annegret Oehme asks what counts as “German” prior to the 16th century; Ellwood Wiggins confronts the rebels of the 18th-century Sturm und Drang with their reactionary tendencies; Jason Groves wrestles with what it means to read the 20th-century poet, Paul Celan, in the 21st century.
Special Issue of German Quarterly (96.2) (co-edited with CJ Jones)
This special issue shows current research trends in contemporary medieval studies and highlights the cultural, geographical, and linguistic plurality of what we consider “German” and “Germany” pre-1700.
Special Issue of German Life and Letters (76.1) (co-edited with Martin Wagner)
Radical and Moderate Sturm und Drang
The Sturm und Drang (1770s) is known for its radical breaks with neoclassical norms, but this aesthetic rebelliousness is coupled with a surprising moderation—or even reactionary tendencies—in its authors’ politics. Using Jonathan Israel’s productive dichotomy of the radical and moderate Enlightenment, this special issue tackles the complex interplay of art and politics in the Sturm und Drang.
Special Issue of The Germanic Review (98.4) (co-edited with Natalie Lozinski-Veach)
Celan’s poems demonstrate a remarkable capacity to touch on others’ histories and experiences and to be touched by them in turn. Drawing on transnational German studies, the introduction “Reading Celan Today” sketches out a framework for appreciating the connections that his poetry facilitates. The essays that follow the introduction offer connective readings of Celan that range from the 13th-century Anatolian mystic Yunus Emre to the contemporary American poet Claudia Rankine.