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Stephen Dowden

Stephen Dowden Professor of German
Chair of the European Cultural Studies Program

Research Interests

Modern German Literature and culture
European modernism
Comparative literature (esp. comparing literature with other art forms)
The novel as form
Literature and philosophy
The avant-garde

Degrees

University of California, Berkeley, PhD
Texas Tech University, MA
Texas Tech University, BA

Awards/Fellowships

Fulbright Senior Research Fellow (Innsbruck, Austria) (2016)
Senior Faculty Research Leave (2015)
Davis Fellow, Brandeis University (2013)
Norman Research Travel Grant (2004)
Humboldt Fellowship (University of Konstanz) (1993–1994)

Morse Fellowship (Yugoslavia) (1987–1988)
Fulbright Summer Seminar (Bonn and Berlin) (1986)
Fulbright Fellowship (Vienna and Tuebingen) (1981–1982)

Select Publications

Dowden, Stephen. Modernism and Mimesis. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Dowden, Stephen, Olaf Berwald, and Gregor Thuswaldner. Thomas Bernhard's Afterlives. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

Steve Dowden and Thomas Quinn, eds. Tragedy and the Tragic and German Literature, Art, and Thought. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015.

Dowden, Stephen, Meike G. Werner. German Literature, Jewish Critics: The Brandeis Symposium. Camden House, 2002.

Dowden, Stephen, ed. Companion to Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Columbia SC: Camden House, 1999.

Dowden, Stephen. Kafka's Castle and the Critical Imagination. Columbia SC: Camden House, 1995.

Dowden, Stephen. Understanding Thomas Bernhard. University of South Carolina Press, 1991.

Dowden, Stephen, ed. Hermann Broch: Literature, Philosophy, Politics. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1988.

Dowden, Stephen. Sympathy for the Abyss: A Study in the Novel of German Modernism. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1986.

Select Courses Taught

COML 106a: The Lyric Imagination

COML 121b: Tragedy and the Tragic

COML 150b: Critique of Erotic Reason

COML178a: Cult Books
ECS 100a: European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism
GECS 100a: German Literature, Music, and Film
GECS 180b: European Modernism and the German Novel
GER 105a: Learning Language through Literature/Learning Literature through Language
GER 109b: Meisterwerke Deutscher Kurzprosa
GER 121a: Der Eros und das Wort: Lyrik, Prosa, Drama
GER 181a: Franz Kafka's Erzählungen
HUM/UWS 1a: Tragedy: Love and Death in the Creative Imagination

Affiliated Departments/Programs

Comparative Humanities
Comparative Literature and Culture
European Cultural Studies

Full List of Publications

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All Publications (click to expand)

Dowden, Stephen. Modernism and Mimesis. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Dowden, Stephen, Olaf Berwald, and Gregor Thuswaldner. Thomas Bernhard's Afterlives. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

Dowden, Stephen. "Is Imre Kertész a German Jewish Writer?." Sixth Biennial German Jewish Studies Workshop, Notre Dame University. February 24-26;.

Dowden, Stephen. "The Joy of Recognition: Fred Wander, Imre Kertész, and Marcel Proust." Fred Wander und sein Werk. Ed. Walter Grünzweig. Vienna: Verlag der Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, 2019. 265-274.

Dowden, Stephen. "17 Theses on Tragedy,” [seminar session The Future of the Tragic]." German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sept. 27-30, 2018.

Dowden, Stephen. "Celan in Jerusalem." German Jewish Studies Workshop at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Tantur Ecumenical Institute, University of Notre Dame Jerusalem Global Gateway, Israel. March 17 - 21, 2018.

Dowden, Stephen. "Imre Kertész and Fred Wander." Internationales Fred Wander Symposium, Technische Universität Dortmund. Nov. 16-19, 2017.

Dowden, Stephen. "Susan Sontag’s Thomas Bernhard." German Studies Association, Atlanta, Georgia;. October 5-8, 2017.

Dowden, Stephen. "The Essential Kafka in Three Parts." Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis University (BOLLI). February 1, 8, & 15, 2017.

Dowden, Stephen. "1922: Kafka, Joyce, and the Question of Modernism." Mandel Humanities Center, Faculty Lunch Seminar. Brandeis University. January 28.

Dowden, Stephen. "Marc's Red Horses and Matisse's Blue Nude." German Studies Association Annual Conference, San Diego, California. October 1.

Dowden, Steve. "untitled." Rev. of Eduard Berend und Heinrich Meyer, Briefwechsel 1938-1972, by Meike Werner. German Quarterly vol. 89 2016: 259-260.

Dowden, Stephen. "Babel as Homeland." Spiritual Homelands, University of Virginia. October 8, 2015.

Dowden, Stephen. "Celan, Mandelstam, and Translation as Tikkun Olam." German-Jewish Studies Workshop, Duke University. February 17, 2015.

Dowden, Stephen. "Kafka, Vienna, and the Question of Modernism." L LC Distinguished Spring Lecture. University of South Carolina. April 9, 2015.

Dowden, Stephen. "Mandelstam, Celan, und der Turmbau von Babel." Zentrum Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg. Berlin. June 11.

Dowden, Stephen. "Mandelstam, Celan, und der Turmbau von Babel." Zentrum für Literatur- und Kultur Forschung. Berlin. June 10, 2015.

Dowden, Stephen. "Marcel Reich-Ranicki and the Question of Worldly Criticism." German Studies Association Annual Conference, Arlington, Virginia. October 12, 2015.

Dowden, Stephen. "Thomas Bernhard and Susan Sontag: Swimming in a Sea of Death.” ‘….under the spell.’ Thomas Bernhard’s Reception in the Anglophone World.." Under the Spell: Thomas Bernhard’s Reception in the Anglophone World., University of London. November 19-21.

Stephen Dowden. "Die Schlafwandler und „das eigentliche Geschäft“ des Romans." Hermann-Broch-Handbuch. Ed. Michael Kessler and Paul Michael Lützeler. New York and London: de Gruyter, 2015. 91-114.

Steve Dowden and Thomas Quinn, eds. Tragedy and the Tragic and German Literature, Art, and Thought. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015.

Steve Dowden. "Nietzsche, Büchner, and the Blues." Tragedy and the Tragic in German Literature, Art, and Thought. Ed. S. Dowden and T. Quinn. Camden House, 2015

Dowden, Stephen. "Hermann Broch and Max Weber." Hermann Broch und die Ökonomie, University of Montreal. November 6, 2014.

Dowden, Stephen. "Things you can do with Marcuse: Understanding the Humanities." The Many Dimensions of Herbert Marcuse, Brandeis University. October 2, 2014.

Dowden, Stephen. "“The Unbearable Lightness of Being K.." German Studies Association Annual Meeting, Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. September 21, 2014;.

Stephen Dowden. "Vienna 1913, 'dans le vrai'." Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 38.2. (2014): 452–468.

Steve Dowden, Thom Quinn, Sabine von Mering. "An open discussion on tragedy and the tragic in German art, thought, and literature." Tragedy and the Tragic: A Conversazione, Brandeis University / Goethe-Institut-Boston. March 13-15, 2014.

Steve Dowden. "Jane Curran’s Contribution to Schiller Studies." Schiller and Verdi: A Study Day in Memory of Jane Curran, University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia. 2013.

Steve Dowden. "Jewish Tragedy?." ” German Jewish Studies Workshop, Duke University. February 10-12, 2013.

Steve Dowden. "Thomas Bernhard and the Masterpiece Problem." Thomas Bernhard: Zur gesellschaftlichen und politischen Bedeutung der Literatur. Ed. Johann Georg Lughofer. Vienna: Böhlau, 2012. 77-86.

Steve Dowden. "What are Avant-Garde Masterpieces?." Literarische Experimente: Medien, Kunst, Texte seit 1950. Ed. Christoph Zeller. Heidelberg: Winter, 2012. 57-72.

Stephen Dowden and Meike Werner. "The Place of German Modernism." Oxford Handbook of Modern German History. Ed. Helmut Walser Smith. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2011. 481-498.

Steve Dowden. "How Viennese is Mahler’s Modernism?." Mahler Our Contemporary,, New England Conservatory, Boston, Massachusetts. December 4, 2011.

Steve Dowden. "The Medusa's Gaze: Büchner, Tolstoy, Kafka." Christian Psychology: The Formation of Souls. Ed. Susan Harris and Daniel Wilbrand. Charlottestown, Prince Edward Island, Canada: St. Peter Publications, 2010. 159-175.

Dowden, Steve. "The Amphibolical Cunning of Thomas Mann's 'Doktor Faustus'." Amphibolie, Ambiguität, Ambivalenz. Ed. Frauke Berndt and Stefan Kammer. Würzburg: Koenigshausen & Neumann, 2009

Dowden, Steve, and Jane V. Curran. "Hans-Ulrich Treichel." Literary Encyclopedia. 2008.

Dowden, Steve. "Metaphor, Illness, and Literature, or: Lunch with Nikolay Stepanovich." Concilium: Internationale Zeitschrift für Theologie 43. 3: AIDS (2007): 75-84.

Dowden, Steve. "untitled." Rev. of Thomas Mann: Der Zauber des Letzten, by Rüdiger Görner. Modern Language Review vol. 101.3 Oct 2007: 309-310.

Dowden, Stephen. "Elfriede Jelinek." Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, pt. 2. vol. 330 Dictionary of Literary Biography New York: Thomson Gale, 2006. 368-384.

Dowden, Steve. "Ethical Style: Sontag in Sarajevo, Jelinek in Vienna." Gegenwartsliteratur: Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch. vol. 5 Ed. Paul Michael Lützeler and Stephan Schindler. Stuttgart: Stauffenberg Verlag, 2006

Dowden, Stephen and Jane V. Curran, ed. COLLOQUIA GERMANICA: A special issue on Hans-Ulrich Treichel. Tübingen: Narr, 38. 2005.

Dowden, Steve. "Robert Musil." The Literary Encyclopedia. 2005.

Dowden,Stephen. "Nietzsche, Benjamin, Treichel and the Demon of Noontide." Colloquia Germanica 38. 1 (2005): 47-63.

Dowden,Steve; Jane Curran. "Ostwestfalen ist ueberall: Gespraech mit Hans-Ulrich Treichel." Colloquia Germanica 37. 3-4 (2005): 302-344.

Dowden, Steve. "The Past Rings out Clearly." Rev. of The Bells in Their Silence: Travels Through Germany, by Michael Gorra. The Boston Globe July 11, 2004

Dowden, Steve. "A Testament Betrayed: Bernhard and his Legacy." A Companion to Thomas Bernhard. Ed. Matthias Konzett. Rochester: Camden House, 2002. 51-70.

Dowden,Stephen, Meike G. Werner. German Literature, Jewish Critics: The Brandeis Symposium. Camden House, 2002.

Dowden,Stephen, ed. Companion to Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Columbia SC: Camden House, 1999.

Dowden,Stephen. Kafka's Castle and the Critical Imagination. Columbia SC: Camden House, 1995.

Dowden, Stephen. "Irony and Ethical Autonomy in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre." Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 68. 1 (1994): 134-154.

Dowden,Stephen. Understanding Thomas Bernhard. University of South Carolina Press, 1991.

Dowden, Steve. "Robinson Crusoe's Banner: Quixotic Nihilism and Moral Imagination in Franz Kafka." " Southern Humanities Review 24.1. (1990): 15-30.

Dowden,Stephen, ed. Hermann Broch: Literature, Philosophy, Politics. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1988.

Dowden,Stephen. Sympathy for the Abyss: A Study in the Novel of German Modernism. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1986.