Robert K. Weninger's Homepages

Robert K. Weninger, Dr. Phil. (Frankfurt)

Professor of German

Telephone: + 44 (0)20 - 7848 2090
Fax: + 44 (0)20 - 7848 2089
email: robert.weninger@kcl.ac.uk)

Mailing Address:

Professor Robert Weninger
Department of German
King's College London
Strand
London WC2R 2LS
Great Britain

Background

Born in Britain, I was educated both in Britain and Germany. I studied German, English and Philosophy at Frankfurt University, where I received my Dr. Phil. in 1982 and also held my first teaching post as a Lehrbeauftragter for German literature and DaF. After an Assistant Professorship in German at the University of Texas at Arlington (1985-1988), I accepted a position at Washington University in St. Louis in 1988 where I served as Assistant professor, Associate Professor and, finally, Professor of German and Comparative Literature and, from 1997-2000, as Chair (Head) of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. From 2000 to 2003 I served as Professor of German at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford and joined the Department of German at King's College London as Chair of German in the summer of 2003. I am currently Head of the German Department and also editor of Comparative Critical Studies (Edinburgh University Press), the peer-reviewed house-journal of the British Comparative Literature Association.

Teaching

Most recently, my teaching has focused on German Literary Debates as German (Literary) History, the post-war German literary scene, German literature and the Holocaust, and contemporary literary theory. I have also taught graduate (post-graduate) and undergraduate courses on Arno Schmidt, German Expressionism and Concrete Poetry, Contemporary Germany, The Short Story, Social and Cultural Aspects of Postwar German Literature and, in Comparative Literature, on Literary Theory, the Theory of Literary History, James Joyce's Ulysses, Intertextuality, Last Men and Women in Literature, and European Realism.

Research

Recent publications include: Comparative Literature at a Crossroads? (Editor), a special thematic issue of Comparative Critical Studies, Vol. 3.1-2 (2006), Streitbare Literaten. Kontroversen und Eklats in der deutschen Literatur von Adorno bis Walser (Becksche Reihe, C. H. Beck Verlag, 2005), Gewalt und kulturelles Gedächtnis. Repräsentationsformen von Gewalt in Literatur und Film seit 1945 (Editor) (Stauffenburg Verlag, 2005), and the second edition of my Arno Schmidt bibliography, Arno Schmidt Auswahlbibliographie. Wissenschaftliche Sekundärliteratur nach Titeln und Themen (München: edition text + kritik, 2006).

Earlier books include: Literarische Konventionen. Theoretische Modelle/Historische Anwendung (Stauffenburg-Verlag 1995), Framing a Novelist: Arno Schmidt Criticism 1970-1994 (Camden House 1995), two edited volumes of essays on the work of Arno Schmidt, Wiederholte Spiegelungen. Elf Aufsätze zum Werk Arno Schmidts (edition text + kritik - Bargfelder Bote Sonderlieferung, 2003) and Der Prosapionier als Letzter Dichter. Acht Vorträge zu Arno Schmidt, co-edited with Timm Menke (Arno Schmidt Stiftung - Hefte zur Forschung, Bd. 6, 2001), and a volume of essays I edited with Brigitte Rossbacher entitled Wendezeiten / Zeitenwenden. Positionsbestimmungen zur deutschsprachigen Literatur 1945-1995 (Stauffenburg Verlag 1997).

A complete list of my publications can be found on the web at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/robertweninger/rwpublications.html. My research interests cover German literary and intellectual history from 1750 to the present with foci on Goethezeit/Romanticism, German realism, twentieth century modernism, post-war German literature and European literary relations; Comparative Literature with a focus on contemporary literary theory and theories of intertextuality; James Joyce; and the German experimental writer Arno Schmidt. My current book and essay projects relate to twentieth century German literary and cultural debates, the reception of James Joyce's works in German literature, the apocalypse in European literature and philosophy, and Arno Schmidt.

Connected Websites: To connect to my other web pages use the following links:

• List of Publications: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/robertweninger/rwpublications.html
• IRAS: Internet Review Arno Schmidt: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/robertweninger/iraskcl.html
• Webspider with Information for Students of German: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/robertweninger/kclgermanwebspider.html

To connect to libraries use these links:

• King's College Library
• British Library
• Oxford University Library
• Institute of Germanic Studies
• Literaturarchiv Marbach

Websites that I have found useful include the following:

• Internet Resources for Germanists at the University of Wisconsin
• American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Home Page
• German Studies Association (GSA) Home Page
• Swansea's German Department External Links Page
• Women in German (WIG) Home Page
• Women in German Studies (the British counterpart) Home Page
• Andreas Lixl's German Studies Trails
• American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Home Page
• British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA) Home Page
• Comparative Literature and Culture (CLC Web) Home Page (a CompLit internet journal)
• The Arno Schmidt Stiftung in Bargfeld
• Gesellschaft der Arno-Schmidt-Leser Home Page
• International James Joyce Foundation Home Page
• A Friedrich Hölderlin Home Page
• Hypermedia Joyce Studies
• Theory and Criticism Links
• Literary Resources List (compiled by Jack Lynch)
• Projekt Gutenberg (text library)

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