DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES NEWSLETTER WINTER 2017 lsa.umich.edu/german LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Dear Friends, As we begin the new Gegenwartsliteratur— two authors—Dischereit year in the middle of a contemporary German and Özdoğan—reading in characteristically frigid literature—emerged, in fact, German and Turkish from Michigan winter, I send warm as something of a theme the libretto, a series of greetings from the MLB for our Fall semester, which Klagelieder (laments) for the and invite you to peruse our began with a panel of three victims of crimes committed newsletter for a look back at renowned German authors in recent years by a neo- an eventful Fall Semester. reading from their works and fascist group in Germany. debating the state of German As most of those reading letters today: Özdogan, And just days before boarding this are well aware, German whom we barely gave time a plane back to Cologne, TABLE OF CONTENTS at U-M is known for having to cure his jetlag, was joined Özdoğan gave a wonderful widened the scope from the by Kerstin Hensel and Ulrich reading of excerpts from his 3 Letter from the Chair more traditional concerns Peltzer, both members of own most recent novel, which Faculty Research 4 - 5 with language and literature the Akademie der Künste, students in Professor Kristin of Bees,” or… reading and to include the full array of Germany’s academy of arts. Dickinson’s translation engaging with German Graduate Student Focus 6 - 8 German Studies, from history Our lively discussions with class had rendered into literature in all of the above. In the Classroom 9 and film to music and politics, the authors ranged from how English. For their translation, from museum studies to they write (the importance they were able to draw on I hope you’ll find plenty Undergraduate Student Focus 10 - 11 media theory. It would be of the pencil!) to whether the author’s own insights of interesting news in the Dutch Studies 12 wrong, however, to see in this it is possible to adequately and suggestions; look for following pages and invite broadening a displacement render today’s media some of the results on the you, as ever, to stop by and Scandinavian Studies 13 of literature, which remains environments and mediated Comparative Literature see us: as much as we like Staying Connected 14 - 15 central to much of what experience in literature. translation blog at U-M and to share what goes on here, we do here in the German It was exciting for faculty, in the online journal Transit we love hearing what goes Department. Take only the graduate and undergraduate at UC Berkeley in the on in the lives of our friends impressive series of events students alike to have the coming months! and alumni beyond Michigan! and residencies that we opportunity to engage at hosted this past semester, such close range, so to All of this is to say nothing of Mit herzlichen Grüßen, anchored by our inaugural speak, with practicing literary the fascinating research that Max Kade visiting author, authors from Germany. goes on in this department Selim Özdoğan. Thanks to the (see p. 4-6), of the flourishing generous support of the Kade A few weeks later, the Dutch and Scandinavian Foundation, we were able to well-known author Esther programs (p. 10-13), or of Johannes von Moltke host Özdoğan in Ann Arbor Dischereit visited Michigan the countless ways in which [email protected] for a 4-month stay, during with a moving reading/ students can encounter which he offered public performance of her opera, German language and readings from his work, Blumen für Otello. Organized culture—whether translating visited classes and taught by the transnational German in seminars on translation, a seminar of his own (see p. studies group Alamanya, the singing in courses on 9), and completed his new evening brought together “German Song,” handling novel, the third in a trilogy. dancers, musicians, and bees in “The German Life 2 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures lsa.umich.edu/german 3 FACULTY RESEARCH Updates on German Faculty Publications and Projects Kerstin Barndt 2016). She also has an Julia Hell Andy Markovits Helmut Puff of the modern world met. article forthcoming with Exploring sensational cases Wearing her Museums New German Critique Julia Hell completed The Andy Markovits just Toward a History of of violence involving figures Studies hat this year, Kerstin titled "Zafer Şenocak's Conquest of Ruins: European published a new book Waiting (1200-1800) on the social margins— Barndt is finalizing a co- 'Turkish Turn': Acts of Empires and the Fall of called Hillel At Michigan homosexuals, prostitutes, edited book on the history Crosslinguistic Remembrance Rome. Tracing an arc from 1926/7 - 1945: Struggles of The putative omnipresence sexual murderers, the of research museums and in Köşk (The Pavilion)." the Roman Empire to the Jewish Identity in a Pivotal of the experience criminally insane, and collecting, Object Lessons Third Reich, The Conquest Era (Ann Arbor: Maize notwithstanding, waiting the fantasy of ritual and the Formation of of Ruins reconstructs and Books, 2016) [co-authored has hitherto largely escaped murder—Violent Sensations Knowledge: The University Geoff Eley analyzes the long afterlife of with Kenneth Garner]. historical investigation. unlocks the ties between of Michigan’s Museums, the Roman Empire, arguing It “is a temporal region the advances in expert Along with Jennifer Jenkins Libraries and Collections, that acts of post-Roman hardly mapped and badly knowledge and the irrational and Tracie Matysik, Geoff 1817-2017. Research findings mimesis and the imperial Peter McIsaac documented,” as Harold outbursts of violence Eley co-edited German from this project have also imaginaries that they Schweizer formulates. For that would characterize Modernities from Wilhelm to inspired her to pursue engendered revolved around For the seminar “Material the individual, waiting can the twentieth century. Weimar: A Contest of Futures two exhibition projects: scopic scenarios visualizing Culture and its Discontents” be said to be a temporally (Bloomsbury Academic, one small exhibition about the end of the Roman at the 2016 German Studies bounded condition in which 2016), which grew from a nineteenth century zoological Empire. This obsession with Association in San Diego, time becomes experiential. Kira Thurman series of workshops between glass models designed the empire’s end did not Peter McIsaac recently From the vantage point 2005 and 2012 with heavy Kira Thurman's latest by a father and son team, begin with Rome’s imitators. presented part of his work on of society, waiting orders U-M participation, past and article, "Singing the Civilizing Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, On the contrary, the idea of popular anatomy exhibition. social interactions on a present. He is currently on Mission in the Land of Bach, in Dresden, Germany; and the empire’s inevitable end In this project, McIsaac variety of levels – and this leave writing a general history Beethoven, and Brahms: another larger exhibition for arose at the very moment explores the visually arresting is what Helmut Puff seeks of Europe in the 20th century. the Fisk Jubilee Singers the University’s bicentennial when the Roman Empire and at times challenging to capture in his study. in Nineteenth-Century year showcasing the very established its hegemony objects that have helped Germany" appeared in first teaching and research in the Mediterranean. In popular anatomy displays Andreas Gailus September in the Journal collections for the arts, the imagination of Europe’s draw more visitors than any Scott Spector other type of exhibition in of World History. The article humanities, and sciences. Andreas Gailus is completing political and intellectual German history since the Scott Spector just published examines Germans' first his book, titled Forms of elites, this model empire is late nineteenth century. his long-term research sustained cultural encounter Life, which explores the thus at once triumphantly Kristin Dickinson By refining the theoretical project, Violent Sensations: with African American music. discourse of life in German powerful and a remarkably precision with which Sex, Crime, and Utopia in culture from the late 18th fragile fabrication, a Kristin Dickinson edited to think about material Vienna and Berlin, 1860- century to 1945. During monumental memory- a special issue on objects in these exhibitions, 1900, which explores the the Fall, Andreas presented fortress and a vast ruinscape Sabahattin Ali titled McIsaac is working to growing metropolises of turn- parts of his book at the that continues to exert "Sabahattin Ali's Translingual understand the ways popular of-the-century central Europe GSA in San Diego and at pressure on our ways of Transnationalism" in the exhibitions operate as a as the stage where decadent the U-M Institute for the thinking about empire. Türkisch-Deutsche Studien kind of mass medium. and enlightened images Top image: Specimens from Kerstin Barndt’s research. Humanities, where he Second image: From Julia Hell's research: Contemplating Jahrbuch (December the Ruins of Palmyra: Volney, Ruines, ou Meditations was a Fellow last year. sur les Revolutions des Empires (1791). Bottom image: Image from Scott Spector’s research 4 Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures lsa.umich.edu/german 5 GRADUATE STUDENT FOCUS Welcome Fall 2016 Graduate Student Cohort! Research Snapshot at the Graduate Level By Peter McIsaac Lauren Lauren Beck returns to the Elizabeth McNeill received Rhiannon’s research At the end of September, snapshot of the entire range and West German post- and video games. Thanks Beck University of Michigan, where her BA summa cum laude interests currently lie graduate students gathered of research being conducted industrial landscape parks to their careful preparation, she recieved her bachelors from the University of Florida in the contemporary along with Department faculty on the graduate level.