WILLIAM S. DAVIS
Program in Comparative Literature 843 Victoria Ridge Pt. Colorado College Colorado Springs, CO 80903 14 East Cache la Poudre Colorado Springs, CO 80903 (719) 389-6815 [email protected]
CURRENTLY
The Colorado College Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and German.
EDUCATION
Stanford University Ph.D. in German Studies and Humanities, January 1989. Dissertation: “The Social Aspect of Weimar Classicism: Lyrical Context in Goethe’s Der Geselligkeit gewidmete Lieder.” Katharina Mommsen, dissertation advisor.
M.A. in German Studies, June 1982. Thesis: “Models for Ottilie in Goethe’s die Wahlverwandtschaften.”
Universität Düsseldorf, Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf Fulbright Scholar for dissertation research, academic year 1987-1988.
Harvard University Exchange scholar in Department of Comparative Literature, academic year 1983-1984.
Brigham Young University B.A. in Comparative Literature with Honors, August 1981.
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PUBLICATIONS
Book Romanticism, Hellenism, and the Philosophy of Nature. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Articles
“Friedrich Schelling’s Moment of Abandon.” World Picture. Vol 10. Spring 2015. http://www.worldpicturejournal.com/WP_10/Davis_10.html
“One with Everything: Hölderlin on Acrocorinth.” European Romantic Review. 26.1 (2014) 59-73.
“Lebende Landschaften: mit Hölderlin und Schelling in Griechenland.” Berliner Schelling Studien. Special Issue. Im Grunde die Wahrheit: Bild und Reflexion in Frühromantik und Philosophie. 12 (2013) 31-51.
“Journeys to the East: Shelley and Novalis.” Romanticism and the Object. Larry Peer, Ed. New York: Palgrave, 2009. 159-176.
“On the Romantic Thing.” Wordsworth Circle (WC). 2008 Winter-Spring; 39 (1-2): 3-7.
“Goethe und Schelling: Die Weltseele.” Berliner Schelling Studien. 3 (2008) 65-82.
“The Living Landscape: Schelling, Goethe, Shelley.” Inventing the Individual: Romanticism and the Idea of Individualism. Ed. Larry Peer. Brigham Young UP, 2002. 49-71.
“Mathilda and the Ruin of Masculinity.” European Romantic Review. 13.2 (June 2002) 175-181.
“Coleridge’s ‘The Pains of Sleep’: Philosophy, Poetry, Melancholy.” Prism(s): Essays in Romanticism. 9 (2001) 51-64.
“The Return of the Material: Goethe, Novalis, Schiller, Schelling.” European Romantic Review. 12.4 (Fall 2001) 407-428.
“‘What More do You Want?’: Iterability and Meaning in Lyric Texts.” “Repetition, Readers, Irony.” Der unzitierbare Text. Ed. Alexander Schwarz. Tausch 10. Bern: Lang Verlag (1997): 69-74, 99-104.
Polemic: Response to: Herbert Penzl, “Zu den Methoden der Lyrikanalyse: Eine Erwiderung auf William S. Davis’ ‘Subjectivity and Exteriority in Goethe’s ‘Dauer im 3 Wechsel’.” The German Quarterly 68.1 (Winter 1995) 64-66.
“The Intensification of the Body in Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther.” The Germanic Review 69.3 (Summer 1994): 106-117.
“‘Menschwerdung der Menschen’: Poetry and Truth in Hardenberg’s Hymnen an die Nacht and the Journal of 1797.” Athenäum: Jahrbuch für Romantik 4 (1994): 239-259.
“Subjectivity and Exteriority in Goethe’s ‘Dauer im Wechsel.’” The German Quarterly 66.4 (Fall 1993): 452-467.
“A Little Night Music: An Intertextual Reading of Goethe’s ‘Nachtgesang.’” Goethe Yearbook 6 (1992) 87-113.
“Frauenzimmerliche Handarbeiten: Reflections on Goethe’s Poem ‘Magisches Netz.’” Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik 22, Heft 2 (1991): 58-79.
Reviews
Review Essay on: Bode, Christoph. Vom Innehalten-anhand einiger Gedichte der englischen Romantik. Vol. 5 Garamond, der Wissenschaftsverlag, 2017; Gabriele, Alberto. The Emergence of Pre-Cinema: Print Culture and the Optical Toy of the Literary Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016; and Gabriele, Alberto. The Emergence of Pre-Cinema: Print Culture and the Optical Toy of the Literary Imagination. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Forthcoming, European Romantic Review.
Review Essay on: Gail K. Hart, Friedrich Schiller: Crime, Aesthetics, and the Poetics of Punishment and Morton Gurewitch, The Comedy of Romantic Irony. European Romantic Review. 20.5 (2009).
Review of: Reid, Nicholas. Coleridge, Form and Symbol or The Ascertaining Vision. Burlington: Ashgate, 2006. The Wordsworth Circle.
Review Essay on: Chaouli, Michel. The Laboratory of Poetry: Chemistry and Poetics the Work of Friedrich Schlegel. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 2002 and Perrey, Beate Julia. Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Early Romantic Poetics: Fragmentation of Desire. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. European Romantic Review. 18.1 (2007).
Review of: Astrida Tantillo, The Will to Create: Goethe’s Philosophy of Nature. Pittsburgh UP: 2002. The Goethe Yearbook.
Review of: Gillen D’Arcy Wood, The Shock of the Real: Romanticism and Visual Culture, 1760-1860. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Romanticism on the Net.
4 Review of: William H. Galperin, The Return of the Visible in British Romanticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1993. The Rocky Mountain Review 48.2 (1994) 200-202. Review of: Simon Richter, Laocoon’s Body and the Aesthetics of Pain: Winckelmann, Lessing, Herder, Moritz, Goethe. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1992. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 30 (1994): 437-439.
Review of: Hans Eichner, Deutsche Literatur im Klassisch-romantischen Zeitalter. Bern: Peter Lang, 1990. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies. 29.1 (February 1993) 72- 74.
“The Third Term: Feminism and Psychoanalysis,” Stanford Humanities Review. 2.1 (1991) 111-115. Review Essay of: Richard Feldstein and Judith Roof, eds. Feminism and Psychoanalysis. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1989.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS and ORGANIZATION
May 2018 “Loveliness in Death.” Wild Romanticism Conference. The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
November 2017 “Beauty is Truth.” World Picture Conference: Truth. University of Toronto. November, 10-12, 2017.
June 2017 Conference Organizer, International Conference on Romanticism: “Romanticism in the Mediterranean World.” Held at the Athens Centre in Athens, Greece, June 14-18, 2017.
Presented paper: “Goethe and the Smiling Medusa.” “Romanticism in the Mediterranean World.” Athens Centre in Athens, Greece.
October 2016 Co-Organizer, International Conference on Romanticism, “Dark Romanticism.” Held at Colorado College.
June 2016 “Byron on the Peloponnese.” Athens Institute for Education and Research, 9th Annual International Conference on Literature. Athens, Greece.
November 2015 “Cyborg Faculties.” World Picture Conference: Faculty. University of Toronto. Toronto, Canada.
5 October 2015 “‘Loveliness in Death’”: Byron and the Anti-Classical Greece.” International Conference on Romanticism. Park City, Utah.
March 2015 “Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Schelling vs. Fichte.” American Comparative Literature Association. Seattle, Washington.
November 2014 “Friedrich Schelling’s Moment of Abandon.” World Picture Conference: Abandon. Institute for Cultural Inquiry. Berlin, Germany
September 2013 “Byron on Acrocorinth.” International Conference on Romanticism. Oakland University, Michigan.
June 2013 “One with Everything: Romantics on Acrocorinth.” Athens Centre (invited lecture). Athens, Greece.
June 2012 “Lebende Landschaften: mit Hölderlin und Schelling in Griechenland.” Colloquium: Im Grunde der Wahrheit: Bild und Reflexion in Frühromantik und Philosophie. Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
January 2012 “Beyond Poststructuralism: Teaching Theory in the Digital Era.” Modern Language Association Conference. Seattle, Washington.
June 2011 “Eins mit Allem: Hölderlin mit Schelling.” Invited lecture, Humboldt Universität. Berlin, Germany.
September 2010 “Along the Borderline of Modern Madness.” 3rd Global Conference, Making Sense of Madness. Oxford, U.K.
November 2009 “Berlin: Romantic to Modern.” International Conference on Romanticism. New York, New York.
July 2008 “Coleridge on the Brocken.” Coleridge Summer Conference. Cannington, U.K.
October 2007 6 “On the Romantic Thing.” International Conference on Romanticism. Baltimore, Maryland.
July 2007 “Ann Batten Cristall in the Twilight Zone.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism/British Association of Romantic Studies conference, Bristol, U.K.
November 2006 “How to Be a Romantic Man.” International Conference on Romanticism, Arizona State University.
August 2006 “Techniques of Romantic Masculinity: Goethe, Shelley, Austen.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism conference, Marquette University.
July 2006 “Coleridge and Intellectual Intuition.” Coleridge Summer Conference, Cannington, U.K.
October 2005 Organizer and Host, International Conference on Romanticism, “Romantic Metamorphoses and Transformations.” Colorado College, Colorado Springs. Member, Executive Board of the ICR (elected position).
August 2005 “’Unzoned’: Ann Batten Cristall and the Creation of a Romantic Metaphhor.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism conference, Montreal.
October 2004 “Journies to the East: Novalis and Shelley.” International Conference on Romanticism, Laredo, Texas.
September 2004 Member, Organizing Committee, North American Society for the Study of Romanticism conference, University of Colorado, Boulder. Paper “Journies to the East: Novalis and Shelley.”
November 2003 “On Manly Idealism: Fichte vs. Schelling.” International Conference on Romanticism, Marquette University.
August 2002 Chaired session “Representations of the French Revolution,” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario).
7 June 2002 Invited Lecture at the Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany), “Goethe und Schelling: Die Weltseele.”
November 2001 “Subjectivity and the Living Landscape: Goethe, Shelley.” American Conference on Romanticism, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio).
August 2001 “Mary Shelley’s Mathilda and the Ruin of Masculinity”: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Seattle, Washington.
October 2000 Revision of “Coleridge’s ‘The Pains of Sleep’: Philosophy, Poetry, Melancholy”: American Conference on Romanticism, Park City, Utah.
Invited Speaker. “Schelling’s Philosophy of Nature”: Utah Valley State College, Humanities Program.
September 2000 Chair of panel on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Physical Coleridge,” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Tempe, Arizona.
July 2000 “Coleridge’s ‘The Pains of Sleep’: Philosophy, Poetry, Melancholy”: The International Coleridge Conference, Cannington, England.
November 1999 “On the World Soul” (on Schelling and Shelley): American Conference on Romanticism, Bloomington, Indiana.
November 1999 Chair of panel for Comparative Literature Section at the Midwest Modern Language Association Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
June 1999 “On the World Soul”: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference, Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
November 1998 “New Historicism and Literature: The Case of Romanticism”: Midwest Modern Language Association Conference, St. Louis, Missouri.
October 1998 Revision of “The Body of the Poet: Novalis, Shelley”: The American Conference on 8 Romanticism, Santa Barbara, California.
August 1998 “The Body of the Poet: Novalis, Shelley”: Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, England.
October 1996 “The Return of the Material: Goethe, Novalis, Schelling”: American Conference on Romanticism.
“Materiality: Goethe, Novalis”: German Studies Association, Seattle, Washington.
February 1996 Invited Speaker. “Goethe’s Aesthetics”: University of New Mexico, Humanities Symposium.
November 1994 Invited Speaker. “Goethe and Schelling”: Brigham Young University, College of Humanities.
October 1994 “Fantasy of Fullness: Goethe, Schelling, and the World Soul”: German Studies Association Conference, Dallas, Texas.
February 1993 “Intensifying the Body in Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werther” at “DeBartolo Conference on Eighteenth-Century Studies,” with special focus on “The Body.” University of South Florida.
August 1992 Received fellowship to participate in: “Interpreting Goethe's Faust Today: An International Conference” at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California at Santa Barbara.
February 1991 “The Mask of the Night: Death and Desire in the Serenade”: Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, San Diego, CA.
October 1986 Chairperson of section on English Romanticism, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association: Solicited and selected papers for, and organized section on English Romanticism for RMMLA annual conference, Denver, Colorado.
August 1985 “Wordsworth's The Borderers and Schiller's Die Räuber”: Wordsworth Summer 9 Conference, Grasmere, England.
October 1984 “Wordsworth and Schiller.” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, El Paso, Texas. (Elected chairperson for 1986.)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Fall 1993-Present, The Colorado College
Comparative Literature: introductory course, Faust theme in literature, specialized topics in Romanticism, literary theory, gender and literature, Romantic Hellenism. English: Romanticism, Blake, Byron and the Shelleys, Women Romantics German: Classicism, Romanticism, Language courses Interdisciplinary Humanities: Utopias and Dystopias, Postmodernism, Freedom and Authority, Literature and Psychoanalysis, Romantic Hellenism (taught in Greece). Hemingway in Africa (taught twice in Tanzania).
Fall 1989-Summer 1993, Brigham Young University
Assistant Professor of German
German: Classicism, Romanticism, Baroque, lyric, historical surveys, language courses. Comparative Literature: literary theory. Interdisciplinary Studies: year-long survey course “Western Civilizations.”
Taught course on German Baroque literature, as well as second half of two-semester History of Western Civilization sequence.
Autumn 1982--Spring 1989, Stanford University
Lecturer in Humanities. Directed three weekly seminars of 15 students each for Humanities track of Stanford’s Cultures, Ideas and Values program. Instructor of first and second year German.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND SERVICE
Advisory Board, International Conference on Romanticism
Member, Modern Language Association
10 Member, Goethe Society of North America
Member, North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
Founding Member, Editorial Board, Stanford Humanities Review