Thomas Schestag, Visiting Professor in the Department of German at Northwestern University and Privatdozent in the Comparative Literature Department at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. His book publications include para- Titus Lucetius Carus, Johann Peter Hebel, Francis Ponge -zur literarischen Hermeneutik (Munich 1991), Parerga: (Munich 1991), Mantisrelikte (on mantics and semantics in relation to the figure of Mantis religiosa, in Jean-Henri Fabre, Maurice Blanchot and Paul Celan) (Basel 1998), and most recently Die unbewältigte Sprache. Hannah Arendts Theorie der Dichtung (Basel 2006). He is the editor of fila sonantia . Fragmente orphischer Entomologie (Vienna 1996) as well as of ?geteilte Aufmerksamkeit ". Zur Frage des Lesens (Frankfurt am Main 1997) and the translator of four books by the French philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe into German: Die Fiktion des Politischen (Stuttgart 1990), Dichtung als Erfahrung (Stuttgart 1992), musica ficta (Stuttgart 1997), Die Nachahmung der Modernen (Basel 2003). He has edited, along with a translation, a philological commentary and an essay, the facsimile of an unpublished dossier by Francis Ponge, L'Opinion changée quant aux fleurs / Änderung der Ansicht über Blumen (Basel 2005).
He has written numerous essays on literature, philology, translation theory and philosophy of language, including: "Asphalt" (on Walter Benjamin's theory of language and names) MLN 106 (1991); "buk" (on topography in Paul Celan's poetry), MLN 109 (1994); "Bibliographie - für Jean Paul", MLN 116 (1998); "Mantis, Relics" [English translation by Georgia Albert], Yale French Studies 93 (1998); "Friend ... Brockes: Heinrich von Kleist in Letters" [English translation by Anthony Adler], Eighteenth Century Studies , 32 (1999: special issue on Politics of Friendship , ed. Peter Fenves); "Men Schen. Schnitte durch ein Gedicht Paul Celans", MLN 119 (2004); "Sem" (on Martin Luther's theory of signs and translation) in Übersetzung und Dekonstruktion ; "Lampen (Fragment)", in Übersetzen : Walter Benjamin , ed. Christiaan L. Hart Nibbrig; "The Highest" in The Solid Letter. Readings of Hölderlin , ed. Aris Fioretos; "Piedestal", introduction to Honoré de Balzac, Theorie des Gehens (Zurich 1997); "Schrittstellen" (on walking and writing in Henry David Thoreau, Walter Benjamin and Franz Kafka), in Rhythmus , ed. Oswald Egger; "Brockes. Freundschaft und Pest bei Heinrich von Kleist", in Kleist lesen , ed. Marianne Schuller/Nikolaus Müller-Schöll; "versi-" (on Rilke's poem Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes ), in Interpretationen. Gedichte von Rainer Maria Rilke , ed. Wolfram Groddeck; "Dach" (on Kafka's theory of education), in Einfache Lösungen. Beiträge zur beginnenden Unvorstellbarkeit von Problemen der Gesellschaft , ed. Bernd Ternes; "Komische Authentizität", in Theorie der Komödie - Poetik der Komödie , ed. Ralf Simon; "Novelle . Zu Gottfried Kellers Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe" in: Anführen - Vorführen - Aufführen. Texte zum Zitieren , ed.Volker Pantenburg/Nils Plath; "'Call me Ishmael.'", in Paratexte in Literatur, Film,Fernsehen , ed. Klaus Kreimeier/Georg Stanitzek; ?'[...] und eigentlich noch viel jünger.' Kafkas Jargon", in Freund, Feind und Verrat. Das politische Feld der Medien , ed. Cornelia Epping-Jäger/Torsten Hahn/Erhard Schüttpelz.
Among his forthcoming books are a collection of essays entitled Fremde Wörter and a work in progress consisting of several parts Tmesis - der Literatur .
Professor Schestag received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich; he has taught at the Lajos-Kossuth-University, Debrecen (Hungary) and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Visiting appointments include: the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; New York University; and the University of Tokyo.
