Andreas Huyssen (born 1942) is the Villard Professor Emeritus of German and

Comparative Literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where he taught beginning in 1986. He is the founding director of the university's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and one of the founding editors of the '' New German Critique''.

Biography

Huyssen was born in Germany in 1942. He studied at several European universities in Madrid, Cologne, Paris, and Munich. He received his doctorate in Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature from the

University of Zürich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

in 1969 under the direction of

Emil Staiger Emil Staiger (8 February 1908 – 28 April 1987) was a Swiss historian, writer, Germanist and Professor of German Studies at the University of Zurich. Life Staiger was born on 8 February 1908 in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. After graduating fro ...

, and taught at the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...

from 1971 until 1986, when he joined the faculty at Columbia. From 1986 to 1992 and again from 2005 to 2008, he served as head of Columbia's Germanic Languages and Literature department. From 1998 to 2003 he was founding director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society. He was named a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 2022.

Work

Huyssen is known for his work on 18th-20th century

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

and culture, international

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...

critical theory,

cultural memory Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these gro ...

, historical trauma,

urban culture Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. The defining theme is the presence of a large population in a limited space that follows social norms. This makes it possible for many subcultures close to each other, exposed to social influence ...

, and

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

. His work has appeared in translation in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Portuguese, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, French, and other languages. He is currently working on a book assembling and expanding his collected essays on the contemporary visual arts. In addition to his editorship of the ''New German Critique'', Huyssen serves on the editorial boards of ''

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...

'', ''

Constellations A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellations were likely defin ...

'', ''

Memory Studies Memory studies is an academic field studying the use of memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose o ...

'' and '' Germanic Review''.

Personal life

He is married to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' correspondent

Nina Bernstein Nina Bernstein is an American journalist, best known for her ''New York Times'' reporting on social and legal issues, including coverage of immigration, child welfare and health care. In 21 years at the ''Times'', from which she retired at the e ...

. Huyssen is a longtime friend of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

-winning Turkish novelist

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him ...

, and often hosts him when the writer comes to the U.S. The two teach an undergraduate class together at Columbia called "Words and Pictures," which examines problems of visual representation in literature, particularly theories of

ekphrasis Ekphrasis or ecphrasis (from the Greek) is a rhetorical device indicating the written description of a work of art. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. Thus, "an ekphrastic poem ...

Selected works

*''Drama des Sturm und Drang'' (1980) *''The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang's Metropolis" (1981) *''After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism'' (1986) *''Postmoderne: Zeichen eines kulturellen Wandels'' (ed. with Klaus Scherpe, 1986) *''Modernity and the Text: Revisions of German Modernism'' (ed. with David Bathrick, 1989) *''Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia'' (1995) *''Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory'' (2003) *''Other Cities, Other Worlds: Urban Imaginaries in a Globalizing World'' (ed.,2008) * ''William Kentridge, Nalini Malani: The Shadow Play as Medium of Memory'' (2013) * ''Miniature Metropolis: Literature in an Age of Photography and Film'' (2015) * ''Memory Art in the Contemporary World: Confronting Violence in the Global South'' (2022)

References

External links

Faculty page for the Columbia department of Germanic Languages and LiteratureBiography at the Institute for Comparative Literature and SocietyHuyssen's acceptance speech for the Mark Van Doren AwardInterview with Andreas Huyssen
in Barcelona Metropolis Magazine, Winter, 2010.
Review of ''Modernism after Postmodernism'' by Andreas Huyssen
in Barcelona Metropolis Magazine, Autumn, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Huyssen, Andreas German literary critics Columbia University Department of German faculty University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty Comparative literature academics Living people 1942 births German male non-fiction writers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences German Germanists American Germanists