Karin Bauer
Professor
Professor
karin.bauer [at] mcgill.ca
Karin Bauer is Professor of German Studies. Her areas of specialization include memory studies, critical theory of the Frankfurt School, exile and migration, gender studies, the New Berlin, literary publics, art and literature, and contemporary German-language literature and thought.
She has published extensively on the work of Herta M眉ller and on authors such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodor W. Adorno, Richard Wagner, J眉rgen Habermas, Edgar Hilsenrath, Ingeborg Bachmann, Botho Strauss, Elisabeth F枚rster-Nietzsche, Elfriede Jelinek, WG Sebald, Christian Kracht, Unica Z眉rn, and Ulrike Meinhof.
She was co-editor and editor of Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies (2011-17) and chair of the Department of German Studies (2000-11) and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (2011-14). She is a member of several editorial boards, including the boards of Kritike: An Online Journal of Philosophy and Journal of Literary Theory. Professor Bauer served as president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German (now German Studies Canada) from 2002-04.
Her research has been supported by a Royal Bank Teaching Development Grant and several Social Sciences and Humanities Research grants. Her current SSHRC-funded project is on Literary Publics Today: Performance, Interaction, Participation.
Professor Bauer is the 2021 recipient of Hermann Boeschenstein Medal for Exceptional Contributions to German Studies in Canada, the most prestigious prize awarded by the German Studies Canada.
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Dissertation Research Supervision (selected)
Award-winning Dissertations
Peter Schweppe, 鈥淟iterary Traffic: The Movement and Materiality of Literature in 1968.鈥� (Co-supervising with Andrew Piper), ten-months research fellowship awarded by DAAD, 2013-14. Defended 2016. Winner of Best Dissertation Prize in German Studies in Canada, 2016-18.
Katrina Sark, 鈥淒ocumenting the New Berlin: Cultural Constructions of German Identity.鈥� Defended 2015. Winner of Best Dissertation Prize in German Studies in Canada, 2014-16.
Nathalie Lachance, 鈥淣ietzsche鈥檚 Ethics of Reading.鈥� Defended 2009. Winner of Best Dissertation Prize in German Studies in Canada, 2008-09.
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Ongoing
Tim Kl盲hn: "At Khlebnikov鈥檚 Grave: Recollections of the Russian Avant-Garde in Post-1950 Russian and German Literature." ABD; in progress.
Olesya Ivantsova, 鈥淚mprovised Metropolis: Moscow and St. Petersburg in the German Imagination.鈥� ABD; ten-months research fellowship awarded by DAAD, 2014-15. In progress.
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Completed
脰zlem Orhan, 鈥淣ovalis' Orient: Eine geistesgeschichtliche und philologische Untersuchung.鈥� Defended 2018.
Michel Mallet, 鈥溾�楲andscapes of the Dispossessed鈥�: Notions of Estrangement and Belonging in the Work of Herta M眉ller.鈥� Defended 2014.
Thomas Kr眉ger, 鈥淭he Entwinement of Nostalgia and Utopia in Texts of the 1970s.鈥� Defended 2008. Ten-months research fellowship awarded by DAAD, 2006-07.
Cathrin Winkelmann, "The Expression and Repression of Homo-Erotic Desire in German Literature." Defended 2002. Ten-months research fellowship awarded by DAAD, 2004-05.
Irena F眉rhoff, 鈥淢yth and Memory in Botho Strau脽.鈥� Defended 2001.
Books:
Cultural Topographies of the New Berlin. Ed. and Introduction by Karin Bauer and Jennifer Ruth Hosek. New York: Berghahn Publisher, 2018. 411 pp. Paperback edition, 2019.
Tout le monde parle de la pluie et du beau temps: pas nous. Ed. and Introduction by Karin Bauer. Translation by Isabelle Totikaev and Luise von Flotow. Montreal: les 茅ditions du remue-m茅nage, 2018. 245pp.
Everybody Talks About the Weather... We don鈥檛: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof. Edited and Introduction by Karin Bauer. Foreword by Nobel-Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek. Afterword by Bettina R枚hl. Translation by Luise von Flotow. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008. 268pp.
Adorno's Nietzschean Narratives: Critiques of Ideology; Readings of Wagner. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. 286pp.
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Special Journal Editions:
Herta M眉ller and the Currents of European History. Ed. with Brigid Haines, Michel Mallet, and Jennifer Watson. Special issue of German Life and Letters 73:1 (January 2020).
Surveillance. Ed. with Andrea Gogr枚f. Special issue of Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies Studies 52.4 (2016). 149pp.
The New Berlin. Special Issue of Seminar 51: 4 (November 2015). 132 pp.
Questioning the RAF: The Politics of Culture. Special issue of Seminar 47:1 (2011). 122pp.
Ethik und Poetik im Werke Herta M眉llers. Special issue of literatur f眉r leser 34:2 (2011). 148pp.
Selected Journal Articles and Book Chapters:
鈥炩�欽ede Schicht ein Kunstwerk鈥�: Postmemoriale Autofiktion und Autorschaft in Herta M眉llers
Atemschaukel." Ed. Brigitte Prutti. literatur f眉r leser 2:19 (2022). 107-22.
鈥淰on Pop zu New Sincerity? Christian Krachts Autorinszenierungen und die Frankfurter Poetikvorlesungen.鈥� Vexierbilder. Autorinszenierung von 1800 bis zur Gegenwart. Ed. Vanessa H枚ving, Alina Boy, and Katja Holweck. Paderborn: Fink Verlag, 2021. 277-301.
鈥淗erta M眉ller鈥檚 Reshaping of German Cultural Memory.鈥� German Life and Letters 73:1 (2020). 10-33.
鈥淐onstructing Christian Kracht: From Faserland to #metoo.鈥� Pacific Coast Philology 54:2 (November 2019) 203-19.
鈥淜枚rper und Geschlecht im Werk Herta M眉llers.鈥� Herta M眉ller-Handbuch: Leben鈥擶erk-- Wirkung. Ed. Norbert Otto Eke. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2017. 205-13.
鈥淐ritical Perspectives on Surveillance in Contemporary German Literature and Film.鈥� Co- authored with Andrea Gogrof. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies Studies 52.4 (2016). 353- 363.
鈥淟ost in Isolation: Ulrike Meinhof鈥檚 Body in Poetry.鈥� Presence of the Body. Ed. Gert Hofmann and Snje啪ana Zori膰. Amsterdam: Brill, 2016. 92-106.
鈥淪taging Utopian Insularity: The End of Empire in Christian Kracht鈥檚 Imperium.鈥� Insularity. Representations and Constructions of Small Worlds. Eld Katrin Dautel and Kathrin Sch枚del. W眉rzburg: K枚nigshausen & Neumann, 2016. 281-96.
鈥淣arrating the New Berlin: Site, Sound, Image, Word.鈥� Co-authored with Jennifer R. Hosek.
Seminar: A Journal for Germanic Studies 51:4 (2015): 293-300.
鈥淩ethinking Graduate Studies.鈥� Co-authored with Andrew Piper. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 50:2 (2014): 139-41.
鈥淭he Politics of Gender in Herta M眉ller鈥檚 Prose.鈥� Herta M眉ller. Ed. Brigid Haines and Lyn Marven. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 153-71.
鈥淯lrike Meinhof, Orphelia, and the Problem of Female Agency.鈥� Journal of Korea Women鈥檚 Research Institute, Sungshin University (2013): 5-28.
鈥淭he End of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of the RAF: Elfriede Jelinek鈥檚 Ulrike Maria Stuart.鈥� Zeitenwende: 脰sterreichische Literatur seit dem Millennium. Ed. Michael B枚hringer and Susanne Hochreiter. Vienna: Praesens Verlag, 2012. 157-172.
鈥淐ollage and Non-Identity in the Work of Herta M眉ller.鈥� Ethik und Poetik im Werke Herta M眉llers. Special issue of literatur f眉r leser 34:2 (2011): 131-44.
鈥淔rom Protest to Resistance: Ulrike Meinhof and the Transatlantic Movement of Ideas.鈥� Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Political Protest and Collective Identities in the 1960s/70s West Germany and U.S. Ed. Belinda Davis and Wilfried Mausbach. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 2010. 171-190.
鈥淎dorno鈥檚 Intellectual Praxis.鈥� New Essays on the Frankfurt School of Critical Thinking. Ed. Alfred Drake. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009. 124-140.
鈥淭he Challenges of Domestication: Elisabeth F枚rster-Nietzsche in Paraguay.鈥� German Diaspora Experiences. Ed. Mat Schulze and David John. Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2008. 345-56.
鈥�'Der Kapitalismus finanziert seinen eigenen Untergang': Parodie und Subversion in Erin Cosgroves 'Die Baader-Meinhof-Aff盲re'." Geschichte(n) erz盲hlen: Nachbilder der RAF. Ed. Inge Stephan. Weimar: B枚hlau Verlag, 2008. 287-98.
鈥淎rea Studies and the Unfulfilled Promise of Interdisciplinary Exchange鈥� Lendemains: Etudes compar茅es sur la France. Ed. Lawrence McFalls and Hans-J眉rgen. L眉sebrink. T眉bingen: Narr, 2006. 14-22.
鈥淭he Dystopian Entwinement of History and Identity in W.G. Sebald鈥檚 Austerlitz.鈥� W.G. Sebald: History鈥擬emory--Trauma. Ed. S. Denham and M. McCulloh. Berlin: deGruyter, 2006. 233-50. 鈥淎dorno鈥檚 Wagner: History and the Potential of the Artwork.鈥� Critical Inquiry 60 (2005): 68-91. 鈥淒ie Entf眉hrung und Ermordung Hanns Martin Schleyers.鈥� Politische Morde von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Ed. Michael Sommer. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftl. Verlagsbuchhandlung, 2005. 223-30.
鈥淣ietzsche, Enlightenment, and the Incomplete Project of Modernity.鈥� Habermas, Nietzsche, and Critical Theory. Ed. Babette Babich. New York: Prometheus Books, 2004. 105-23.
鈥溾�楳anchmal wird es mir peinlich, meinen eigenen Atem zu h枚ren:鈥� Gescheiterte Performanzen des ver-r眉ckten K枚rpers in Unica Z眉rns Prosa,鈥� K枚rper und Diskurse in der deutschen Kultur. Ed. Sabine Wilke and Brigitte Prutti. Berlin: Synchronverlag 2003. 253-73.
鈥淒omesticating Nietzsche: Toward a Genealogy of Elisabeth F枚rster-Nietzsche鈥檚 鈥楴ovellen- Eierchen鈥�.鈥� Orbis Litterarum 57.5 (2002): 343-69.
鈥淣arrative Strategies of Identity/Image Construction in Nietzsche's Critique of Wagner.鈥� Seminar
35:4 (November 1999) 295-307.
鈥淓rz盲hlen im Augenblick h枚chster Gefahr: Zu Benjamins Begriff der Geschichte in Edgar Hilsenraths Jossel Wassermanns Heimkehr.鈥� The German Quarterly 72. 4 (Fall 1998): 343-52. "That Obscure Object of Desire: Homoeroticism and Disaster in Ingeborg Bachmann's 'A Step toward Gomorrah'." Queering the Canon: Defying Sights in German Literature and Culture. Ed.
Chris Lorey and John Plews. New York: Camden House, 1998. 222-33
"Patterns of Consciousness and Cycles of Self-Destruction: Nation and Gender in Herta M眉ller's Prose." Gender and Germanness: Cultural Productions of Nation. Ed. Patricia Herminghouse and Magda M眉ller. New York: Berghahn Books, 1998. 263-75.
"Tabus der Wahrnehmung: Reflexion und Geschichte in Herta M眉llers Prosa." German Studies Review 19:2 (May 1996): 257-78.
"Gegenwartskritik und nostalgische R眉ckgriffe: Die Abdankung der Frau als Objekt m盲nnlichen Begehrens und die Erotisierung der Kindfrau in Botho Strau脽' Paare Passanten." German Quarterly 62.2 (Spring 1996): 181-95.