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Bryan Klausmeyer

Bryan Klausmeyer, Assistant Professor of German

Bryan Klausmeyer, Assistant Professor of German
Bryan Klausmeyer, Assistant Professor of German

Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
220 Stanger Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
klausmeyer@vt.edu

Bryan Klausmeyer’s research and teaching focus on the intersection of media theory, the history of science, and 18th- and 19th-century German literature. His current book project, Small Forms: Micrologies of German Literature and Science around 1800, examines poetic and scientific figurations of smallness in the long 18th century. He has also published articles on this and related topics in journals such as MonatshefteThe Germanic Review, and Goethe Yearbook.

  • German Literature and Thought (18th-19th century)
  • History of Science and Technology
  • Media History and Theory
  • Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
  • PhD, German Literature and Thought, Johns Hopkins University, 2016
  • MA, German Literature and Thought, Johns Hopkins University, 2012
  • BA, History, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, 2009
  • Digital editor, Goethe Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts
  • Member, American Comparative Literature Association
  • Member, German Studies Association
  • Member, Goethe Society of North America
  • Member, Modern Language Association

External Grants

DAAD Faculty Summer Seminar ($3,200), Cornell University (2018)

Best Essay Prize for 2016 ($500), Goethe Society of North America (2017)

DAAD Global Humanities Junior Fellowship, Freie Universität Berlin (2016)

Internal Grants

Niles Research Grant ($5,000), Virginia Tech (2021)

International Travel Supplemental Grant ($1,000), Virginia Tech (2019)

CLAHS New Faculty Mentorship Grant ($1,500), Virginia Tech (2019)

Niles Research Grant ($4,000), Virginia Tech (2019)

Co-Edited Volumes

Co-editor, with Andrea Krauß/Johannes Wankhammer, MLN, vol. 136, no. 5, 2021, Special Issue: “Scenes of Writing.”

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

“‘Living Drafts’: Brecht’s Poetics of Exile in ‘Garden in progress.’” Brecht Yearbook, vol. 47, 2022. Forthcoming.

“Journals, Letters, Files: Work Poetics and Scenes of Writing around 1800.” MLN, vol. 136, no. 5, 2021, pp. 1010–31.

“Scenes of Writing: An Introduction,” with Andrea Krauß/Johannes Wankhammer. MLN, vol. 136, no. 5, 2021, pp. 965–70.

“Expressions of the Interior: Physiognomic Knowledge in Lavater, Goethe, and Alexander von Humboldt.” Scientia Poetica, vol. 25, 2021, pp. 93–122.

“Abschlussbewegungen: Goethe, Freud, and Spectral Forms of Life.” Goethe Yearbook, vol. 26, 2019, pp. 163–78. Invited.

“From the Spirit of Slip Boxes: Materiality and Media Technology in Jean Paul’s Leben des Quintus Fixlein.” The Germanic Review, vol. 93, no. 3, 2018, pp. 277–97.

“Fragmenting Fragments: Jean Paul’s Poetics of the Small in ‘Meine Miszellen.’” Monatshefte, vol. 108, no. 4, 2016, pp. 485–509. Awarded the Goethe Society of North America’s Best Essay Prize (2016).

Essays in Collected Volumes

“‘Quer durch’: Miscellaneity in Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s Sudelbücher.” Miszellanes Lesen. Interferenzen zwischen medialen Formaten, Romanstrukturen und Lektürepraktiken im 19. Jahrhundert, edited by Daniela Gretz, Marcus Krause, and Nicolas Pethes, Wehrhahn 2022, pp. 73–94.

Lexicon Entries

“Spirale (Spiral).” Goethe-Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts, vol. 1, no. 1, 2021, pp. 99–112.

Book Reviews

Seán M. Williams, Pretexts for Writing: German Romantic Prefaces, Literature, and Philosophy (Bucknell UP, 2019). Goethe Yearbook, vol. 29, 2022. Invited. Forthcoming.

Marcel Schmid, Autopoiesis und Literatur: Die kurze Geschichte eines endlosen Verfahrens (transcript, 2016). Monatshefte, vol. 109, no. 4, 2017, pp. 693–95. Invited.

Stefan Andriopoulos, Ghostly Apparitions: German Idealism, the Gothic Novel, and Optical Media (Zone Books, 2013). MLN, vol. 130, no. 3, 2015, pp. 670–75.

Paul North, The Problem of Distraction (Stanford UP, 2011). MLN, vol. 127, no. 3, 2012, pp. 685–89. Invited.

Translations

Rüdiger Campe, “Writing; The Scene of Writing,” with Johannes Wankhammer. MLN, vol. 136, no. 5, 2021, pp. 971–83.

GER 4334/5334H: Short Forms: Fables, Fragments, Aphorisms
GER 3474: Topics in German Cinema
GER 3306: Berlin, Berlin: Cultural History of a Metropolis
GER 3305: Revolution and Revolt: German Culture in the Long 19th Century
GER 3204: German Exile Culture in America
GER 3125: German Oral Proficiency I
GER 3106: German Conversation, Composition, Grammar II
GER 3105: German Conversation, Composition, Grammar I

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