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Amir Eshel

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Contact:

Pigott Hall 219
Phone: 650 723 0413
Fax: 650 725 8421
eshel@stanford.edu

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Tuesdays 1:30-2:30 PM or by appointment

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philosophy and literature
literary theory
Contemporary Literature and the Arts
postwar Germany
German-Jewish history
Modern Hebrew Literature
The Europe Center

Amir Eshel

Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies
Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature
Director, Comparative Literature

Amir Eshel is Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies, Professor of German Studies and Director of the Department of Comparative Literature. He is also an Affiliated Faculty at The Europe Center at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. His research focuses on the contemporary literature and the arts, with emphasis on twentieth and twenty-first century German, Anglo-American and Hebrew. As the faculty director of Stanford’s research group on The Contemporary https://thecontemporary.stanford.edu/ and of the project Poetic Media at Stanford’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), he is interested in the contemporary cultural imagination as it addresses modernity’s traumatic past with its philosophical, political and ethical implications.

Amir Eshel is the author of Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past (The University of Chicago Press, 2013). The German version of the book, Zukünftigkeit: Die zeitgenössische Literatur und die Vergangenheit appeared in 2012 with Suhrkamp Verlag. Together with Ulrich Baer, he co-edited an essay collection on Hannah Arendt’s thought as a productive resource across disciplines and genres, Hannah Arendt zwischen den Disziplinen (Wallstein Verlag, 2014).  He co-edited a book of essays with Yfaat Weiss on the contemporary German writer, Barbara Honigmann, whose work reflects on post-Cold War culture,  Kurz hinter der Wahrheit und dicht neben der Lüge: Zum Werk Barbara Honigmanns (Fink Verlag, 2013). His earlier work includes a longer essay that examines the literary imagniation as it reflects on the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Das Ungesagte Schreiben: Israelische Prosa und das Problem der Palästinensischen Flucht und Vertreibung (2006); and of a study of the poetry of Jewish writers as they examine the notion of time after the Holocaust, Zeit der Zäsur: Jüdische Lyriker im Angesicht der Shoah (1999). In recent years, Amir Eshel also wrote on such authors as Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, W.G. Sebald, Günter Grass, Alexander Kluge, Durs Grünbein, S. Yizhar, and Yoram Kaniyuk, as well as on contemporary artists such as Gerhard Richter, Peter Eisenman, and Ori Gersht.  

Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1998 as an Assistant Professor of German Studies, Amir Eshel taught at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Amir is a recipient of fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt and the Friedrich Ebert foundations and received the Award for Distinguished Teaching from the School of Humanities and Sciences. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in German literature, both from the University of Hamburg.

Education

1998 Ph.D. University of Hamburg, Germany
1994 M.A. University of Hamburg, Germany

COURSES

DLCL 225 Digital Humanities

The Digital Humanities Focal Group (DHFG) will promote faculty and graduate research in the digital humanities through lectures series, praxis workshops, curriculum, and the identification and development of digital humanities research projects, especially those eligible for grant-funding opportunities. DHFG sponsors a lecture series and convenes regular workshops alternating between praxis and theory. These activities provide fora in which faculty and graduate students can share work in progress, discuss the state of the field, and identify important research that should be shared with the DLCL and broader academic communities. Crucially, the DHFG will promote digital research on underrepresented literatures and cultures to counteract the English-language dominance of much work in the field.

GERMAN 271 Futurity: Why the Past Matters (COMPLIT 271A)

Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.

GERMAN 271 Futurity: Why the Past Matters (COMPLIT 271A)

Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.

COMPLIT 271A Futurity: Why the Past Matters (GERMAN 271)

Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.

COMPLIT 271A Futurity: Why the Past Matters (GERMAN 271)

Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.

GERMAN 222 German Literature 3: Myth and Modernity (COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 322)

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.

COMPLIT 283 Masterpieces of Hebrew Literature from the Bible to the Present (JEWISHST 243)

This course presents and reflects on some of the canonical works of Hebrew literature, from biblical era to the present. Discussing works such as the Wisdom Books and selections from the Midrash; and reflecting on important periods such as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain, the Renaissance, and contemporary Israeli literature, we will highlight linguistic innovation, as well as crucial thematic and philosophical concerns. Readings include the Book of Job, Psalm, Ibn Gabirol, Mapu, Rachel, Goldbegr, Agnon, S. Yizhar, Amichai, Oz and more.

GERMAN 150 Masterpieces: Kafka (COMPLIT 114, JEWISHST 145)

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.

COMPLIT 114 Masterpieces: Kafka (GERMAN 150, JEWISHST 145)

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.

GERMAN 354 Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 154B, COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 154, JEWISHST 144B)

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

GERMAN 154 Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 154B, COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B)

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

COMPLIT 354B Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 154B, GERMAN 154, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B)

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

GERMAN 154 Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 154B, JEWISHST 144B)

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

COMPLIT 154B Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 154, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B)

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

COMPLIT 154B Poetic Thinking Across Media (GERMAN 154, JEWISHST 144B)

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

GERMAN 322 Wrestling with Modernity: German Literature and Thought from 1900 to the Present (COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 222)

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.

GERMAN 222 Wrestling with Modernity: German Literature and Thought from 1900 to the Present (COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 322)

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.

COMPLIT 222A Wrestling with Modernity: German Literature and Thought from 1900 to the Present (GERMAN 222, GERMAN 322)

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.

GERMAN 298 Writing Workshop

Open only to German majors and to students working on special projects, including written reports for internships. Honors students use this number for the honors essay. May be repeated for credit.