Andreas Huyssen
Encyclopedia
Andreas Huyssen is the Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature
at Columbia University
, where he has taught since 1986. He is the founding director of the university's Center for Comparative Literature and Society and one of the founding editors of the New German Critique
, the leading journal of German studies in the United States.
Huyssen received his doctorate from the University of Zürich
in 1969, and taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from then until 1986, when he joined the faculty at Columbia. From 1986 to 1992 and in 2005 he served as head of Columbia's Germanic Languages and Literatures department. From 1998 to 2003 he was a director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society.
and culture, international modernism
and postmodernism
, Frankfurt School
critical theory, cultural memory
, historical trauma, urban culture
, and globalization
. His work has appeared in translation in Spanish
, Portuguese
, Turkish
, Chinese
, Japanese
, and other languages.
He is currently working on a book project about modernist miniatures, a little studied experimental form of modernist writing, widespread in French and German modernism from Charles Baudelaire
to Rainer Maria Rilke
, Benn
, Franz Kafka
, Siegfried Kracauer
, Musil
, and Walter Benjamin
.
In addition to his editorship of the New German Critique, Huyssen serves on the editorial boards of October, Constellations
, and Germanic Review.
-winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk
, and often hosts him when the writer comes to the US. The two teach an undergraduate class together at Columbia called "Words and Pictures," which examines problems of visual representation in literature, particularly theories of ekphrasis.
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he has taught since 1986. He is the founding director of the university's Center for Comparative Literature and Society and one of the founding editors of the New German Critique
New German Critique
The New German Critique is a contemporary academic journal in German studies. It is associated with the Department of German Studies at Cornell University...
, the leading journal of German studies in the United States.
Life
He was born in Germany in 1942.Huyssen received his doctorate from the University of Zürich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
in 1969, and taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from then until 1986, when he joined the faculty at Columbia. From 1986 to 1992 and in 2005 he served as head of Columbia's Germanic Languages and Literatures department. From 1998 to 2003 he was a director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society.
Work
Huyssen is particularly known for his work on 18th-20th century German literatureGerman literature
German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...
and culture, international modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
, Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
critical theory, cultural memory
Cultural memory
For other approaches see Memory and Culture As a term, cultural memory was first introduced by the German Egyptologists Jan Assmann in his book "Das kulturelle Gedächtnis", who drew further upon Maurice Halbwachs’s theory on collective memory...
, historical trauma, urban culture
Urban culture
Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. In the United States, Urban culture may also sometimes be used as a euphemistic reference to contemporary African American culture.- African American culture :...
, and globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
. His work has appeared in translation in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and other languages.
He is currently working on a book project about modernist miniatures, a little studied experimental form of modernist writing, widespread in French and German modernism from Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
to Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, Benn
Benn
Benn is a surname, and may refer to:* A. W. Benn , British rationalist/humanist writer* Arrelious Benn, American football wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers* Arthur Shirley Benn , British politician, later Baron Glenravel...
, Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer was a German-Jewish writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist...
, Musil
Musil
Musil is a Czech surname which may refer to:in music:* Bartolo Musil , an Austrian young musician, singer and composer* Erich Musil , German tenor singer...
, and Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
.
In addition to his editorship of the New German Critique, Huyssen serves on the editorial boards of October, Constellations
Constellations
Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of critical and democratic theory and successor of Praxis International. It is edited by Andrew Arato, Amy Allen, and Andreas Kalyvas...
, and Germanic Review.
Personal
Married to New York Times correspondent Nina Bernstein, Huyssen is also a longtime friend of Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....
, and often hosts him when the writer comes to the US. The two teach an undergraduate class together at Columbia called "Words and Pictures," which examines problems of visual representation in literature, particularly theories of ekphrasis.
Selected works
- Drama des Sturm und Drang (1980)
- After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism (1986)
- Postmoderne: Zeichen eines kulturellen Wandels (ed. with Klaus Scherpe, 1986)
- Modernity and the Text: Revisions of German Modernism (ed. with David Bathrick, 1989)
- Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia (1995)
- Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (2003)
- Other Cities, Other Worlds: Urban Imaginaries in a Globalizing World (2008)
External links
- Faculty page for the Columbia department of Germanic Languages and Literature
- Biography at the Center for Comparative Literature and Society
- Andreas Huyssen on Günter Grass
- Huyssen’s acceptance speech for the Mark Van Doren Award
- Interview with Andreas Huyssen in Barcelona Metropolis MagazineBarcelona MetropolisBarcelona Metrópolis is a magazine of urban information and thought dedicated to monitoring the evolution of the city of Barcelona.Barcelona...
, Winter, 2010. - Review of Modernism after Postmodernism by Andreas Huyssen in Barcelona Metropolis MagazineBarcelona MetropolisBarcelona Metrópolis is a magazine of urban information and thought dedicated to monitoring the evolution of the city of Barcelona.Barcelona...
, Autumn, 2010.