Helmut Müller-Sievers (MA in
German and Latin Literature, FU Berlin 1985, Ph.D. in
German and the Humanities, Stanford 1990) is Professor
of German and Classics, and Director of the Program in
Comparative Literary Studies. His work is concerned with
the interrelations of literature, science, philosophy,
and the history of philology. He is the author of Epigenesis.
Naturphilosophie im Sprachdenken Wilhelm von Humboldts.
(Paderborn: Schoeningh 1994), Self-Generation. Biology,
Literature, Philosophy around 1800. (Stanford: Stanford
University Press 1997), and Desorientierung. Anatomie
und Dichtung bei Georg Büchner (Göttingen:
Wallstein 2003). Among his recent articles are: „On
the Way to Quotation. Paul Celan and Georg Büchner.“ In:
New German Critique (forthcoming, Fall 2004); “Of
Fish and Men: The Importance of Georg Büchner’s
Anatomical Writings.” In: MLN 118 (2003),
pp. 704 – 718; “Ablesen.
Zur Entwicklung des wissenschaftlichen Blicks.” In:
Bernhard J. Dotzler, Sigrid Weigel (eds.), 'Fülle
der combination’. Literaturforschung und Wissenschaftsgeschichte.
(München: Fink, Fall 2004); “Ahnen ahnen.
Formen der Generationenerkennung in der Literatur um
1800.” In:
Ohad Parnes, Stefan Willer, Ulrike Vedder, Sigrid Weigel
(eds.), Generation—Genealogie des Konzepts,
Konzepte der Genealogie (München: Fink, Fall
2004).
Professor Müller-Sievers is currently
working on two large-scale projects: a history
of German Goethe-criticism, tentatively entitled “Being
against Goethe 1832 – 1933”, and an interpretation
of 19th century culture in the light of its prevalent
shape, entitled “The Cylinder, Figure of the Nineteenth
Century.”
Professor Müller-Sievers has been
the Lane Professor in the Humanities 1997 – 1998
and the Director of the Kaplan Center for the Humanities
1998 – 2002. He has held fellowships from the National
Humanities Center (1994 – 1995) and from the Max-Planck-Institute
for the History of Science (1997, 1998, 2002 – 2003).
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