Goethe looking out the window of his Rome apartment is an appropriate emblem for the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on German Literature and Culture. It was in Rome that Goethe came to understand the unity of his investigations on art, nature, and socio-cultural forms. And it was in Italy that he forged the concepts of morphological type and intellectual intuition that would have such a powerful influence on German philosophy. In this respect, his work is a model for the various activities of the Center, the aim of which is to bring the study of German literary and cultural history into productive conversation with adjacent disciplines.
Officers
Director:
David E. Wellbery, LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professor (Germanic Studies, Committee on Social Thought, and the College)
Executive Committee:
David E. Wellbery, LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professor (Germanic Studies, Committee on Social Thought, and the College)
Robert Pippin, Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor (Committee on Social Thought, Department of Philosophy, and the College)
Eric Santner, Philip and Ida Romberg Distinguished Service Professor in Modern Germanic Studies (Germanic Studies, Committee on Jewish Studies, and the College)
Seminars
Annual Goethe Seminar: An annual three-day seminar with five graduate-student participants each from Princeton University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. The seminars are jointly conducted by Prof. Joel Lande (Princeton), Professor Dorothea von Mücke (Columbia), and Professor David Wellbery (Chicago).
- 2017 at Columbia University: Faust I
- 2018 at Princeton University: Hermann und Dorothea
- 2019 at University of Chicago: Iphigenie auf Tauris
- 2020 at Columbia University: Die Natürliche Tochter (cancelled due to Covid-19)
Triangular Seminar: A biannual seminar with graduate students from Cambridge University, the Friedrich-Schlegel-Graduiertenkolleg at the Freie Universität Berlin, and the University of Chicago.
- Conferences in 2010 (Berlin)
- 2012 (Cambridge)
- 2014 (Chicago)
- 2016 (Berlin)
- 2018 (Cambridge)
- 2020 (Chicago, cancelled due to Covid-19).
Conferences
The Center for Interdisciplinary Research regularly sponsors conferences and guest lectures and supports other units in the University who sponsor events on related topics.
Our most recent conference was entitled Emergence and Ground: The Dynamics of ‘Darstellung’. Scholars from Europe and the United States came together to discuss the new research possibilities opened up by Juliane Vogel’s book Aus dem Grund. Auftrittsprotokolle zwischen Racine und Nietzsche (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2018). Photographs from the Conference are included below.
In November 2020, the Center will sponsor a conference entitled Überforderung der Form. Erkundung einer neuen Fragestellung in der Theorie und Hermeneutik der Dichtung. This conference will take place at the University of Leipzig and has support from the. Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Featured Images:
#1 Jake Fraser and Florian Klinger
#2 Brigid Doherty and Niklaus Largier
#3 David Levin, Juliane Vogel, Joel Lande, Niklaus Largier, Ethan Blass, Eva Eßlinger
#4 Christopher Wild, Julia Lupton, Juliane Vogel, Eric Santner, Jake Fraser
#5 Daniel Carranza, Simon Friedland
#6 Joel Lande, Florian Klinger, Sophie Salvo
Publications
CONFRONTING IDENTITIES IN GERMAN ART: MYTHS, REACTIONS, REFLECTIONS, ed. Reinhold Heller (Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2002).
NEW WRITING IN GERMAN, ed. Andrew Duncan, Tony Frazer, Anna Gisbertz, and W. Martin, CHICAGO REVIEW 56/4 (2002).
DIE GABE DES GEDICHTS. GOETHES LYRIK IM WECHSEL DER TÖNE, ed. Gerhard Neumann and David E. Wellbery (Freiburg: Rombach, 2008).
KARL PHILLIP MORITZ: SIGNATUREN DES DENKENS, ed. Anthony Krupp, Amsterdamer Beitrage zur Neueren Germanistik (Amsterdam: Rodolpi, 2010.
KULTUR-SCHREIBEN ALS ROMANTISCHES PROJEKT. ROMANTISCHE ETHNOGRAPHIE IM SPANNUNGSFELD ZWISCHEN IMAGINATION UND WISSENSCHAFT, ed. David E. Wellbery (Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann, 2012).
COMPARATIVE EPISTEMOLOGIES OF LITERATURE, ed. David E. Wellbery, Special Issue of COMPAR(A)ISON, vol. 8 (2008).
KLEIST’S ‘UNSICHTBARES THEATER’, ed. Christopher Wild, special issue of DEUTSCHE VIERTELJAHRSSCHRIFT FÜR LITERATURWISSENSCHAFT UND GEISTESEGESCHICHTE, Volume 87/4, December 2013.
GOETHES SPÄTWERK/ON LATE GOETHE, ed. Kai Sina and David Wellbery (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019).
