Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born June 15, 1948, in Wurzburg, Germany; son of Hanns Heinz and Thea Gumbrecht; married Ulrike Loch, August 30, 1989; children: Marco, Sara, Christopher Vincent, Laura Teresa. Education: Attend the Universität München, Universidad de Salamanca, and the Universität Regensburgh. University of Konstanz, Ph.D., 1971.

ADDRESSES:

Office—112 Pigott Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Scholar, educator, writer, and editor. University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany, professor, 1975-82; University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany, professor, 1983-89; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, professor, 1989—, named Albert Guérard Professor in Literature. Also associate professor at the University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; directeur d'études associé, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; professeur attaché, Collège de France.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (fellow), Deutscher Romanistenverband, Wolfram von Eschenbach Association, Association Internationale de Hispanistas.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Cuthbertson Award, Stanford University, 2000. Also awarded honorary degrees, including University of Montevideo, Ph.D., 1999; University of Montreal, Ph.D., 2004; University of Siegen, Germany, Ph.D., 2007.

WRITINGS:

Funktionswandel und Rezeption; Studien zur Hyperbolik in literarischen Texten des romanischen Mittelalters, W. Fink (Munich, Germany), 1972.

Zola Im Historischen Kontext: Für Eine Neue Lektüre Des Rougon-Macquart-Zyklus, W. Fink (Munich, Germany), 1978.

Funktionen Parlamentarischer Rhetorik in Der Französischen Revolution: Vorstudien Zur Entwicklung Einer Historischen Textpragmatik, W. Fink (Munich, Germany), 1978.

Literatur in Der Gesellschaft Des Spätmittelalters, C. Winter (Heidelberg, Germany), 1980.

(With Karlheinz Stierle and Rainer Warning) Honoré De Balzac, Fink (Munich, Germany), 1980.

(With Rolf Reichardt und Thomas Schleich) Sozialgeschichte Der Aufklärung in Frankreich: 12 Original-Beiträge, Oldenbourg (Munich, Germany), 1981.

(With Bernard Cerquiglini) Der Diskurs Der Literatur Und Sprachhistorie: Wissenschaftsgeschichte Als Innovationsvorgabe, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1983.

(With Ursula Link-Heer) Epochenschwellen Und Epochenstrukturen Im Diskurs Der Literatur Und Sprachhistorie, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1985.

La Littérature Historiographique Des Origines à 1500, C. Winter (Heidelberg, Germany), 1986.

(With K. Ludwig Pfeiffer) Stil: Geschichten Und Funktionen Eines Kulturwissenschaftlichen Diskurselements, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1986.

‘Dabei Sein Ist Alles’: Über Die Geschichte Von Medien, Sport, Publikum, DFG-Sonderforschungsbereich 240 (Siegen, Germany), 1988.

(With Niklas Luhmann, Heinz Heckhausen, and Siegfried J. Schmidt) Kreativität, Ein Verbrauchter Begriff?, W. Fink (Munich, Germany), 1988.

Eine Geschichte Der Spanischen Literatur, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1990.

(With K. Ludwig Pfeiffer) Paradoxien, Dissonanzen, Zusammenbrüche: Situationen Offener Epistemologie, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1991.

(With Robert Weimann) Postmoderne: Globale Differenz, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1991.

Making Sense in Life and Literature, translated by Glen Burns; foreword by Wlad Godzich, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1992.

(Editor, with K. Ludwig Pfeiffer) Materialities of Communication, translated by William Whobrey, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1994.

(With Christoph Wulf and Dietmar Kamper) Ethik Der Ästhetik, Akademie Verlag (Berlin, Germany), 1994.

(Editor, with Marina S. Brownlee) Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1995.

(With Friedrich Kittler und Bernhard Siegert) Der Dichter Als Kommandant: D'Annunzio Erobert Fiume, W. Fink (Munich, Germany), 1996.

In 1926: Living on the Edge of Time, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

(Editor, with David Palumbo-Liu) Streams of Cultural Capital: Transnational Cultural Studies, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1997.

(Editor, with Joao Cezar de Castro Rocha) Máscaras Da Mímesis: A Obra De Luiz Costa Lima, Editora Record (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1999.

Warum Fussball? Kulturwissenschaftliche Beschreibungen Eines Sports, Aisthesis (Bielefel, Germany), 2002.

ParisBerlin: Europa, Fundacion BBV (Bilbao, Spain), 2002.

Vom Leben Und Sterben Der Grossen Romanisten: Karl Vossler, Ernst Robert Curtius, Leo Spitzer, Erich Auerbach, Werner Krauss, Hanser (Munich, Germany), 2002.

(Editor, with Michael Marrinan) Mapping Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Digital Age, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2003.

The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2003.

(Author of introduction) Intermedialidad E Hispanística, P. Lang (New York), 2003.

(Editor, with Timothy Lenoi) Ursula Klein, Experiments, Models, Paper Tools: Cultures of Organic Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2003.

(Editor, with David E. Wellbery and Judith Ryan) A New History of German Literature, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2004.

In Praise of Athletic Beauty, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

Contributor to Metrópoles Na Pós-modernidade, edited by Fernanda Gil Costa and Helena Goncalves da Silva, Colibri (Lisbon, Portugal), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht is a professor of literature whose fields of interest include literary theory, Romance literatures, medieval culture, contemporary culture, and philosophical aesthetics. He has written or edited numerous books within his fields of interest. In his 1997 book In 1926: Living on the Edge of Time, the author explores the year 1926 and the rushing wave of experiences that were propelling people into the future. Exploring the realities of the day, the author examines the bars, movie palaces, elevators, automobiles, and airplanes of the time. He also examines the culture, including boxing, bullfighting, dance crazes, and the writings of masters such as Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges and Ernest Hemingway. In the process, the author explores how people's lives changed, from the beginning of assembly lines that turned men into automatons to the ravings of Adolf Hitler. He also looks at other cultural icons, including Babe Ruth, Josephine Baker, and Greta Garbo. Focusing on the cities of Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York, Gumbrecht includes a broad examination of Europe and Latin America.

In The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship, published in 2003, Gumbrecht comes to the defense of philology, which focuses on the discovery, editing, and presentation of historical texts. Philology departments are on the wane in colleges and universities, and the author presents his view that philology remains essential to historical research. In the process, he argues against the modern alternative, which features a more liberal textual interpretation of texts. He also argues against redefining literary studies as "cultural studies," presenting his view that this change results in a lack of intellectual focus.

Gumbrecht is also the editor, with David E. Wellbery and Judith Ryan, of A New History of German Literature, which presents leading scholars and critics writing about the spirit of the German culture with a focus on German literary history, from the earliest charms and mythical sagas to twentieth-century fiction, poetry, and film. With 200 original essays, the book forgoes a single continuous narrative and, instead, focuses on a particular literary work, historical or literary event, musical composition, technological invention, or theatrical or cinematic premiere. Overall, the essays provide a look what it is that has allowed people such as Hildegard of Bingen, Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and W.G. Sebald to surprise and delight readers.

"The aim of this approach is … not summaries and catalogues, but the exploration of the discontinuous in search of ‘sudden illumination,’" wrote Roger Paulin in the Modern Language Review. Paulin went on to write in the same review: "The reader who learns how to use this literary history ‘with a difference’ will do so with great interest and profit. It surely must become a standard work that will attract the widest readership."

In his 2004 book Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey, the author provides a personalized account of some of the central theoretical movements in literary studies and the humanities that have occurred since the 1970s. The author also writes about the possible future of literary studies and develops his thesis that interpretation alone will not and cannot do justice to the dimension in which cultural phenomena and cultural events become tangible and subsequently impact people and society.

"The word ‘presence’ does not refer (at least does not mainly refer) to a temporal but to a spatial relationship to the world and its objects," the author writes in his book. "Something that is ‘present’ is supposed to be tangible for human hands, which implies that, conversely, it can have an immediate impact on human bodies."

Noting that "Gumbrecht puts presence at the center of future academic practice in the arts and humanities," Galbi Think! Web site contributor Douglas Galbi found that the author provides a history of how literary interpretation became the dominant theory in looking at humanistic activities. Galbi added: "He then explores the much different lived experience of presence," noting later in the same review: "Gumbrecht points to stimulating paths for exploring the relationship between presence of persons and presence of things of the world."

The author's next book, In Praise of Athletic Beauty, examines the immense popularity of sports and why sports fascinate. Eschewing the standard view of sports popularity being due to such experiences as vicarious thrill, anxiety release, and competitive spirit, Gumbrecht offers a provocative alternative, namely that watching sports may be the most popular and potent contemporary form of aesthetic experience. The author writes that this experience represents the classic, very literal sense of this concept.

Writing in Booklist, Bryce Christensen called In Praise of Athletic Beauty "a remarkable commentary, light-years from the cliches typical of sportswriting." Comparing reading Gumbrecht to listening to "a kooky but brilliant professor," Sports Illustrated contributor Charles Hirshberg added that after "you … stop making fun of him, you realize that you've learned something interesting."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich, Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2004.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 1999, Alun Munslow, review of In 1926: Living on the Edge of Time, p. 148.

Booklist, March 15, 2006, Bryce Christensen, review of In Praise of Athletic Beauty, p. 15.

Choice, January, 1996, J.A. Ara, review of Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain, p. 797; July-August, 2004, M. Uebel, review of Production of Presence,; November, 2006, S.G. Smith, review of In Praise of Athletic Beauty, p. 494.

Hispanic Review, spring, 2000, Emilie L. Bergmann, review of Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain, p. 199.

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, April, 2005, Jan M. Ziolkowski, review of The Powers of Philology: Dynamics of Textual Scholarship, p. 239.

Modern Language Review, July, 2006, Roger Paulin, review of A New History of German Literature, p. 877.

Modern Philology, November, 1997, Nicholas Spadaccini, review of Cultural Authority in Golden Age Spain, p. 239.

Publishers Weekly, February 20, 2006, review of In Praise of Athletic Beauty, p. 152.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2003, review of Mapping Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Digital Age, p. 11; May 1, 2004, review of Production of Presence, p. 8.

Rethinking History, spring, 2000, Marybeth Hamilton, review of In 1926, p. 101.

Southern Humanities Review, winter, 1995, Carole J. Lambert, review of Making Sense in Life and Literature, p. 77; summer, 2000, Carole J. Lam- bert, review of In 1926, p. 276; summer, 2005, Carole J. Lambert, review of Production of Presence, p. 276.

Sports Illustrated, June 26, 2006, Charles Hirshberg, "The Nutty Professor," review of In Praise of Athletic Beauty, p. 7.

USA Today, August, 2003, "Electronic Teaching Spurs Skepticism," p. 8.

Virginia Quarterly Review, summer, 1998, review of In 1926, p. 80.

ONLINE

Galbi Think!,http://www.galbithink.org/ (June 24, 2008), Douglas Galbi, review of Production of Presence.

Harvard University Press,http://www.hup.harvard.edu/ (June 24, 2008), overview of In 1926.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (August, 2006), Edward T. Potter, review of A New History of German Literature.

Stanford University Comparative Literature Department Web site,http://www.stanford.edu/dept/complit/ (June 24, 2008), faculty profile of author.

Stanford University Press,http://www.sup.org/ (June 24, 2008), overview of Production of Presence.

Stanford University Web site,http://www.stanford.edu/ (June 24, 2008), faculty profile of author.

University of Illinois Press,http://www.press.uillinois.edu/ (June 24, 2008), overview of The Powers of Philology.