Carolin Duttlinger (born 1976) is a German academic and

Germanist German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

. She studied at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württe ...

and at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where she completed her doctorate in 2003. She is Professor of German Literature and Culture at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

and a fellow and tutor of

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy ...

. In 2016 and 2019-20 she was external senior fellow at the

Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies The Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) is the international research college of the University of Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany. The institute was initially part of the university's proposal for funding in the Excellence Initiative in ...

. Duttlinger's research focuses on German literature and thought from the eighteenth century to the present. She has published four books on the Prague writer

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ty ...

and co-directs the Oxford Kafka Research Centre together with

Katrin Kohl Katrin is a feminine given name. It is a German and Swedish contracted form of Katherine. Katrin may refer to: Sports *Katrin Apel (born 1973), German biathlete * Katrin Beinroth (born 1981), German judoka * Katrin Borchert (born 1969), German ...

, Barry Murnane and

Ritchie Robertson Ritchie Neil Ninian Robertson FBA (born 1952) is a British academic who was the Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature between 2010 and 2021. He was educated at Nairn Academy in the North of Scotland and at Edinburgh University, whe ...

. Duttlinger's research is interdisciplinary in nature, with a particular emphasis on

Critical Theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from s ...

and the relationship between literature and visual media. She is the editor of the Legenda book series Visual Culture. Her monograph ''Attention and Distraction in Modern German Literature, Thought, and Culture'' (2022) traces the history of

attention Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Att ...

and its interplay with

distraction Distraction is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention ...

from the eighteenth century to present. Duttlinger has worked extensively on the German-Jewish thinker and critic

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewi ...

. She is a member of the executive board of the International Walter Benjamin Society, and has spoken about Benjamin on radio and television.

Select bibliography

* ''Kafka and Photography'' (Oxford University Press, 2008) * Editor, with Johannes Birgfeld, ''Curiosity in German Literature and Culture from 1700 to the Present'' (Oxford German Studies, 2009) * Editor, with Ben Morgan and Anthony Phelan, ''Walter Benjamins anthopologisches Denken'' (Rombach, 2012) * ''The Cambridge Introduction to Franz Kafka'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013) * Editor, with Silke Horstkotte, ''Weimar Photography in Context,'' special issue of ''Monatshefte'', 109 (2017) * Editor, ''Franz Kafka in Context'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018) * Editor, with Kevin Hilliard and Charlie Louth, ''From the Enlightenment to Modernism: Three Centuries of German Modernism'' (Legenda, 2021) * ''Attention and Distraction in Modern German Literature, Thought, and Culture'' (Oxford University Press, 2022)

References

1976 births Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford Living people Germanists Franz Kafka scholars Walter Benjamin scholars {{Germany-academic-bio-stub