Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht
Encyclopedia
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, best known as "Sepp" Gumbrecht, is a German
-born American literary theorist
and currently the Albert Guérard Professor on Literature in the Departments of Comparative Literature
, French and Italian, German, and Spanish and Portuguese at Stanford University
and Zeppelin University
.
, Germany
, Gumbrecht received his education in Paris
, Munich
, Regensburg
, Salamanca
, Pavia
and Konstanz
, receiving his Ph.D.
at the University of Konstanz
in 1971 where he was also an assistant professor from 1971 to 1974. He had appointments at the universities of Bochum
, Siegen
, and has been at Stanford since 1989.
He is married with and four children (MAINLY LAURA GUMBRECHT).
His publications are extensive and in many languages, through principally in German (in the first half of his career) and in English (since moving to the U.S. in 1989).
His principal books are "Making Sense in Life and Literature" (University of Minnesota Press, 1989) "In 1926" (Harvard, 1998) " The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship" (University of Illinois Press, 2003), "Production of Presence" (Stanford University Press, 2003), "In Praise of Athletic Beauty" (Harvard Press, 2007).
Edited books include: (with K.L. Pfeiffer) Materialities of Communication (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), (with M. Brownlee) Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), (with David Palumbo-Liu) Streams of Cultural Capital (Stanford: Stanford Literature Review, Spring/Fall 1993; book version at Stanford University Press, 1997).
(with F. Kittler/B. Siegert) Der Dichter als Kommandant. D'Annunzio erobert Fiume (Munich: Fink-Verlag, 1996), (with Ted Leland, Rick Schavone, Jeffrey Schnapp) The Athlete's Body (Stanford: Stanford Humanities Review 6.2, 1998), (with Michael Marrinan) Mapping Benjamin. The Work of Art in the Digital Age (Stanford: Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born American literary theorist
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
and currently the Albert Guérard Professor on Literature in the Departments of Comparative Literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
, French and Italian, German, and Spanish and Portuguese at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Zeppelin University
Zeppelin University
Zeppelin University is a highly-selective, top-ranked, privately-funded research university in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The university was founded in 2003.- Overview :...
.
Life and education
Born in 1948 in WürzburgWürzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Gumbrecht received his education in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
, Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...
, Pavia
Pavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
and Konstanz
Konstanz
Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz.-Location:...
, receiving his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
at the University of Konstanz
University of Konstanz
The University of Konstanz is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was founded in 1966, and the main campus on the Gießberg was opened in 1972. As one of nine German Excellence Universities today University of Konstanz is counted among Germany's most prestigious...
in 1971 where he was also an assistant professor from 1971 to 1974. He had appointments at the universities of Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...
, Siegen
Siegen
Siegen is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region...
, and has been at Stanford since 1989.
He is married with and four children (MAINLY LAURA GUMBRECHT).
Work
Gumbrecht's main areas of research, teaching, and publishing are:- European literatures of the Middle AgeMiddle ageMiddle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....
s and of the late 18th and 19th centuries; - history and pragmatics of communication media;
- epistemology of everyday culture; and, more recently,
- the aesthetics of sports.
His publications are extensive and in many languages, through principally in German (in the first half of his career) and in English (since moving to the U.S. in 1989).
His principal books are "Making Sense in Life and Literature" (University of Minnesota Press, 1989) "In 1926" (Harvard, 1998) " The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship" (University of Illinois Press, 2003), "Production of Presence" (Stanford University Press, 2003), "In Praise of Athletic Beauty" (Harvard Press, 2007).
Edited books include: (with K.L. Pfeiffer) Materialities of Communication (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), (with M. Brownlee) Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), (with David Palumbo-Liu) Streams of Cultural Capital (Stanford: Stanford Literature Review, Spring/Fall 1993; book version at Stanford University Press, 1997).
(with F. Kittler/B. Siegert) Der Dichter als Kommandant. D'Annunzio erobert Fiume (Munich: Fink-Verlag, 1996), (with Ted Leland, Rick Schavone, Jeffrey Schnapp) The Athlete's Body (Stanford: Stanford Humanities Review 6.2, 1998), (with Michael Marrinan) Mapping Benjamin. The Work of Art in the Digital Age (Stanford: Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004).
Publications
- Eine Geschichte der spanischen Literatur (Suhrkamp, 1990) (= A History of Spanish Literature, 2 vols.)
- In 1926: Living at the Edge of Time (Harvard University Press, 1997)
- The Powers of Philology (University of Illinois Press, 2003)
- The Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey (Stanford University Press, 2004)
- In Praise of Athletic Beauty (Harvard University Press, 2006) (Trad. esp.: Elogio de la belleza atlética, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores, 2006, ISBN 9871283067 (paperback), ISBN 8460983579 (hardcover)).
- “Heidegger’s Two Totalitarianisms”. Telos 135 (Summer 2006). New York: Telos Press.
- "From Oedipal Hermeneutics to Philosophy of Presence". TELOSTELOS (journal)Telos is an academic journal published in the United States. It was founded in May 1968 to provide the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective. It sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction...
138 (Spring 2007). New York: Telos Press - Mente y materia. ¿Qué es la vida? Sobre la vigencia de Erwin Schrödinger (with Michael R. Hendrickson; Robert Pogue Harrison and Robert B. Laughlin), Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores, 2010, ISBN 9788492946129.
Honors
- September 2010: honorary doctorate of Aarhus University, Denmark
- January 2009: honorary doctorate of the Phillips-Universität Marburg, Germany
- January 2009: honorary doctorate of the University of Lisbon, Portugal
- May 2008: honorary doctorate of the University of Greifswald, Germany
- May 2007: honorary doctorate of the Saint Petersburg State UniversitySaint Petersburg State UniversitySaint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
, Russia - May 2007: honorary doctorate of the University of SiegenUniversity of SiegenThe University of Siegen in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia, was founded in 1972. 14,100 students were enrolled at the university as of October 2010.-Faculties:University of Siegen offers in total 126 degree programmes across four faculties:...
, Germany - May 2003: honorary doctorate of the Université de MontréalUniversité de MontréalThe Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
, Canada - May 1998: honorary doctorate of the Universidad de MontevideoUniversidad de MontevideoThe Universidad de Montevideo is a private university located in Montevideo, Uruguay. It opened in 1986, and obtained the right to be legally named a university in 1997.-Departments:It has seven departments:...
, Uruguay
External links
- Gumbrecht's homepage at www.stanford.edu
- The State of Public Philosophy Radio interview on Philosophy TalkPhilosophy TalkPhilosophy Talk is a talk radio program co-hosted by John Perry and Ken Taylor, who are professors at Stanford University. The show is also available as a podcast, available for purchase. The program deals both with fundamental problems of philosophy and with the works of famous philosophers,...
- Three one-hour radio interviews on Entitled OpinionsEntitled OpinionsEntitled Opinions is a literary talk show hosted by Robert P. Harrison, a professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. The show is also available as a podcast. Topics range broadly on issues related to literature, ideas, and lived experience...
with Robert P. HarrisonRobert P. HarrisonRobert P. Harrison is the Rosina Pierotti Chair of Italian Literature at Stanford University.He was born in Izmir, Turkey, and raised in Rome. He is the host of the podcast Entitled Opinions . He plays lead guitar for the cerebral rock band Glass Wave.- External links :* * *...
about The Man Without Qualities, Athletic Beauty, and The Philosophy of Moods