School of Modern Languages and Cultures

Academic & Teaching staff

Professor Stuart Taberner

Professor of Contemporary German Literature, Culture and Society

gllsjt@leeds.ac.uk

0113 343 3504

on sabbatical, September 2011- September 2013. Leverhulme Fellowship

Biography

I was educated at the University of Cambridge (BA and Ph.D.) and the University of Chicago (MA), I worked at the University of Bristol from 1996-2000. I joined the department in Leeds in August 2000.

Since arriving in Leeds I have also completed an MA in Modern Jewish Studies.

Postgraduate Supervision

I would be delighted to offer postgraduate supervision in the following areas: German-language Literature since 1945; German-language Literature since Unification; German-language Literature and Transnationalism; Germany since 1990: literature, politics and society; Writing by 'minority' authors; questions of German 'normalisation', globalisation, nation and identity, particularly in relation to German-language literature.

Currently, I am working with the following Ph.D candidates:

Karina Berger - Literary Representations of German Wartime suffering

Kirsten Harder - The 'Reactionary Fiction' of Martin Mosebach

Anja Henebury - Contemporary German Literature and Theories of Trauma

Completed PhDs:

Giles Harrington - Contemporary German Pop Literature (2010)

Research Interests

My research focuses on the relationships between politics and writing, the role of the German intellectual in the period after 1945, and literature after 1989. I have written on the Holocaust, its impact on post-unification Germany, 'normalisation' and national identity, and relationships between Germans and Jews, as expressed in film, literature and intellectual debate. More recently, I have become interested in German literature since the Wende.

Publications

Teaching Publications

Edition of Bernhard Schlink's Der Vorleser for Schools and Universities, with a 25 page introduction, notes, vocabulary and 'Fragen zum Text' ( London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd 2002), ISBN 1853996491
'Playing with Fire: Teaching Max Frisch's Biedermann und die Brandstifter', Deutsch: Lehren und Lernen, September 1998
'Alice in den Städten (Alice in the Cities)', in Jill Forbes and Sarah Street (eds.), European Cinema ( London: Palgrave, 2000). ISBN 0333752090
'Das Versprechen (The Promise)', in Jill Forbes and Sarah Street (eds.), European Cinema ( London: Palgrave, 2000). ISBN 0333752090
'The Morality of Loving a Concentration Camp Guard. Teaching Bernhard Schlink's Der Vorleser', Deutsch: Lehren und Lernen, 25 (Spring 2002), 3-8

Books

Distorted Reflections: The Public and Private Faces of the Author in the Work of Uwe Johnson, Günter Grass and Martin Walser (Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1998). ISBN 90-420-0353-7
Edited with Frank Finlay: Recasting German Identity(Rochester: Camden House, 2002). ISBN 1-57113-244-9
Edited: German Literature in the Age of Globalisation (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2004). ISBN 1-9024459-51-2
German Literature of the 1990s and Beyond (Rochester: Camden House, 2005). ISBN: 1571132899
Edited with Paul Cooke: German Culture, Politics and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization (Rochester: Camden House, 2006)
Edited: Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)
Edited: The Cambridge Companion to Günter Grass (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2009).
Edited with Karina Berger, Germans as Victims in the Literary Fiction of the Berlin Republic (Rochester: Camden House, 2009).
Edited: The Novel in German since 1990 (Cambridge: CUP, 2011).
Edited with Lyn Marven: German Writers of the 21st Century (Rochester: Camden House, 2011)

Journal Articles

'Martin Walser's Die Gallistl'sche Krankheit: Self-Reflexivity as Illness', German Life and Letters, 49:3 (1996), 358-372.
'Martin Walser's Halbzeit: Stylizing Private History for Public Consumption', The Modern Language Review, 92:4 (1997), 912-923
'Feigning the Anaesthetization of Literary Inventiveness: Günter Grass's örtlich betäubt and the Public Responsibility of the Politically Engaged Author', Forum for Modern Language Studies, 34:1 (1997), 69-81
'Authenticity and Nostalgia: Edgar Reitz's Heimat as Tourism and Folk Museum', New German Studies (1997)
'"sowas läuft nur im Dritten Programm": Winning Over the Audience for Political Engagement in Günter Grass's Kopfgeburten oder Die Deutschen sterben aus', Monatshefte, 91:1 (1999), 84-100.
'"Wie schön wäre Deutschland, wenn man sich noch als Deutscher fühlen und mit Stolz als Deutscher fühlen könnte": Martin Walser's Reception of Victor Klemperer's Tagebücher 1933-1945 in Das Prinzip Genauigkeit and Die Verteidigung der Kindheit', Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, 73:4 (1999), 710-732
'A Manifesto For Germany's 'New Right'? - Martin Walser, The Past, Transcendence, Aesthetics, And Ein Springender Brunnen', German Life and Letters, 53:1 (2000), 126-141
'The Writer's Fascination with Power: Stefan Heym's Der König David Bericht', Neophilologus, 84 (2000), 271-283.
'"Die Uniformen kannte er nur aus Filmen": The influence of popular fiction and film on western images of the GDR in Uwe Johnson's Das Dritte Buch über Achim', Internationales Forum für Uwe Johnson-Studien, Band 8 (2000), 9-25.
'The Final Taboo?: Philosemitism, the Meinungsindustrie, and the New Right in Martin Walser's Ohne Einander', Seminar, 37:2 (2001), 154-166
'Hans-Ulrich Treichel's Der Verlorene and the Problem of German Wartime Suffering', The Modern Language Review, 97:1 (2002), 123-134
'A New Modernism of "Neue Lesbarkeit"? - Hybridity in Georg Klein's Libidissi', German Life and Letters, 55:2 (2002), 137-148
'Introduction' to special edition of German Life and Letters on 'Emerging German Writers', with Frank Finlay, 55:2, 131-136
'"Normalization" and the New Consensus on the Nazi Past: Günter Grass's Im Krebsgang and the "Problem" of German Wartime Suffering', Oxford German Studies, 31 (2002), 161-186
'Nichts läßt man uns, nicht einmal den Schmerz, und eines Tages wird alles vergessen sein': The Novels of Arnold Stadler from Ich war einmal to Ein hinreissender Schrotthändler', Neophilologus, 87:1 (2003), 119-132
'German Nostalgia? Remembering German-Jewish Life in W. G. Sebald's Die Ausgewanderten and Austerlitz', The Germanic Review, 79:3 (2004), 181-202
'Philo-Semitism in Recent German Film: Aimee und Jaguar, Rosenstrasse and Das Wunder von Bern', German Life and Letters, 58:3 (2005), 357-372
'Germans, Jews and Turks in Maxim Biller's Novel Esra', The German Quarterly, 79:2 (2006), 234-248
'Private Failings and Public Virtues: Guenter Grass's Beim Haueten der Zwiebel and the Exemplary Use of Authorial Biography', Modern Language Review, 103:1 (2008), 144-154
'From Luther to Hitler? 'Ordinary Germans', National Socialism and Germany's Cultural Heritage in F. C. Delius's Bildnis der Mutter als junge Frau', German Life and Letters, 61:3 (2008), 386-397
'"Kann schon sein, daß in jedem Buch von ihm etwas Egomäßiges rauszufinden ist": "Political" Private Biography and "Private" Private Biography in Günter Grass's Die Box' (2008), German Quarterly, 82:4 (2009), 504-21.
'Literature and Unification. Günter Grass's Im Krebsgang, Feridun Zaimoglu's German Amok, and Daniel Kehlmann's Die Vermessung der Welt', Literatur für Leser, 33:2 (2010), 23-38

Chapters in Books

'Fictional Reflections on the Gruppe 47 in Martin Walser's Kristlein Trilogy', The Gruppe 47 Fifty Years on. A Reappraisal of its Literary and Political Significance, German Monitor, Stuart Parkes and J.J White (eds.) (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999), 139-157
'Preface', with Clare Flanagan, in: 1949/1989: Cultural Perspectives in East and West, German Monitor, Stuart Taberner and Clare Flanagan (eds.) (Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2000), i-vi. ISBN 90-420-1472-5
'"ob es sich bei diesem Experiment um eine gescheiterte Utopie oder um ein Verbrechen gehandelt hat": Enlightenment, Utopia, the GDR and National Socialism in Monika Maron's Work From Flugasche to Pawels Briefe', in: Carol Costabile-Heming, Rachel Halverson, Kristie Foell (eds.), Textual Responses to German Unification (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Verlag, 2001), 35-57. ISBN 3-11-071022-1
'"Die Deutsche Geschichte darf auch einmal gutgehen": Martin Walser, Auschwitz, and the "German Question" from Ehen in Philippsburg to Ein Springender Brunnen', in: Helmut Schmitz (ed.), The Future of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), 45-64. ISBN 0-7546-0112-9
'Introduction', in: Stuart Taberner and Frank Finlay (eds.), Recasting German Identity (Rochester: Camden House, 2002), 1-15. ISBN 1-57113-244-9
'A Matter of Perspective?: Martin Walser's Fiction in the 1990s', in: East and West German Responses to Unification, Martin Kane (ed.) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2002), 149-165. ISBN 3-906769-70-4
'"Wie kannst du mich lieben?": "Normalising" the Relationship between Germans and Jews in the 1990s' Films Aimée und Jaguar and Meschugge', in: William Niven and James Jordan (eds.), Politics and Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany ( Rochester: Camden House, 2003), 227-244. ISBN 1-57113-223-6
'"sehnsüchtig-traurig und unerlöst": Memory's Longing to Forget. Or Why Tristanakkord is Not Simply A Reprise of Martin Walser', in: David Basker (ed.), Hans-Ulrich Treichel (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2004), 79-93. ISBN 0-7083-1716
'The German Province in the Age of Globalisation - Botho Strauss, Arnold Stadler and Hans-Ulrich Treichel', German Literature in the Age of Globalisation (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2004), 89-110. ISBN 1-9024459-51-2
'Introduction', in: German Literature in the Age of Globalisation (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2004), 1-24. ISBN 1-9024459-51-2
'The Triumph of Subjectivity: Martin Walser's Novels of the 1990s and his Der Lebenslauf der Liebe (2001)', in: Stuart Taberner (ed.) Stuart Parkes and Fritz Wefelmeyer (eds.), Martin Walser, German Monitor, 60:1 (2005), 429-445
'Representations of German Wartime Suffering in Recent Fiction', in: Bill Niven (ed.), German Wartime Suffering (London: Palgrave, 2006), 164-180
'Introduction', with Paul Cooke, in: Paul Cooke and Stuart Taberner (eds.), German Culture, Politics and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization (Rochester: Camden House, 2006), 1-15
'German Fiction in the Age of Globalisation', in: Paul Cooke and Stuart Taberner (eds.), German Culture, Politics and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization (Rochester: Camden House, 2006), 209-221
'Introduction', in: Stuart Taberner (ed.), Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), xi-xx
'West German Writing', in: Stuart Taberner (ed.), Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 72-90
'Narratives of Expulsion in Contemporary German Writing', in Helmut Schmitz (ed.), Discources of 'German Wartime Suffering', German Monitor (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007), 224-246
'Introduction', in: Stuart Taberner (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Günter Grass (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2009), 1-9.
'Günter Grass's Peeling the Onion', in: Stuart Taberner (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Günter Grass (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2009), 139-50.
'Introduction', in: Stuart Taberner and Karina Berger (eds.), Germans as Victims in the Literary Fiction of the Berlin Republic (Rochester: Camden House, 2009), 1-14.
'Memory-Work in Recent German Novels: What (if Any) Limits Remain on Empathy with the "German Experience" of the Second World War?', in: Stuart Taberner and Karina Berger (eds.), Germans as Victims in the Literary Fiction of the Berlin Republic (Rochester: Camden House, 2009), 205-18.
'The Art of Delay: Protest and Prose in F. C. Delius's Mein Jahr als Mörder', in: Brigid Haines, Stephen Parker, Colin Riordan (eds.), Aesthetics and Politics in Modern German Culture. Festschrift in Honour of Rhys W. Williams (Bern: Peter Lang, 2010).
'Introduction', in: Stuart Taberner, ed., The Novel in German Since 1990 (Cambridge: CUP, August 2011), 1-18.
'Daniel Kehlmann's Die Vermessung der Welt', in: Stuart Taberner, ed., The Novel in German Since 1990 (Cambridge: CUP, August 2011), 201-220.
'Performing Jewishness in the New Germany: Vladmir Vertlib's Das besondere Gedächtnis der Rosa Masur', in: Stuart Taberner and Lyn Marven, eds., Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century (Rochester: Camden House, September 2011)

Edited

with Clare Flanagan, 1949/1989: Cultural Perspectives in East and West, German Monitor (Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2000). ISBN 90-420-1472-5
with Frank Finlay, Recasting German Identity (Rochester: Camden House, 2002). ISBN 1-57113-244-9
with Frank Finlay, special edition of German Life and Letters on 'Emerging German Writers', April 2002
German Literature in the Age of Globalisation (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2004). ISBN 1-9024459-51-2
with Paul Cooke, German Culture, Politics and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization (Rochester: Camden House, 2006)
Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Grants and Collaborative Work

Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence Award for Henry Tietzch-Tyler, November 2008-November 2009
MHRA award for The German Novel since 1990
British Academy Award for The Cambridge Companion to Günter Grass, August 2007
October 2005-October 2008 - Principal Investigator, Major AHRC award on 'Discourses on German Wartime Suffering'
July 2005-August 2006 - British Academy Grant for work on Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic
February 2004-August 2004 - AHRB research leave award, for German Literature of the 1990s and Beyond
July 2002-April 2003 - British Academy grant for German Literature in the Age of Globalisation
May 2002-May 2005 - British Academy Networks grant, for work on Politics and Literature into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Normalization
June 2000-August 2001 - British Academy Grant for work on German Literature of the 1990s and Beyond
February 1998-January 1999 - Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Fellowship, with subsequent awards, for German Literature of the 1990s and Beyond

Reviews

The Modern Language Review
The Journal for European Studies
Studies in Twentieth Century Literature

Other

Research Panel Membership

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College

Conference Organiser

April 1998 - 1949/1989: Cultural Perspectives in East and West
April 2000 - Germany 2000: Taking Stock
May 2001 - Emerging Writers
May 2002 - Workshop on Emerging German Writers
September 2004 - Germany in the Age of Normalisation
November 2005 - Contemporary German Fiction

Administration

Exams' Officer
Director of Postgraduate Research

Faculty of Arts