john mccarthy

McCarthy’s research is catholic in scope, extending from the late 17th to the 20th century. Beginning with the European and German Enlightenment and their legacies, his inquiries have led him to explore the Enlightenment as dynamic process, the ethics of reading and writing, the essay as art form, the function of literature as self-discovery, Nietzsche and the crisis of modern consciousness, the interconnections between philosophy and literature and between science and literature, chaos and complexity theory as systems theory, the portrayal of evil in film and text from Faust to Silence of the Lambs, and most recently the idea of Europe in historical perspective. His research interests also extend to the history of German Studies in the USA, the theory and practice of censorship, and history of the book. Central to his interests are the writers J.J. Breitinger, Leibniz, G.E. Lessing, Goethe, G. Büchner, Grass, Nietzsche, S. Richardson, Schiller, Fr. Schlegel, Shaftesbury, S. Sternheim, Voltaire, C.M. Wieland.
book publications include













 
Remapping Reality: On Chaos and Creativity in Science and Literature (Goethe—Nietzsche—Grass). Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Publishers, 2006. 373 pp
Co-editor and Co-Author. German Studies in the United States: A Handbook. Ed. by Peter Uwe Hohendahl, Frank Trommler, Patricia Herminghouse, J. A. McCarthy and Cora Lee Kluge. New York: The Modern Language Society of America, 2003. 576 pp.
The Many Faces of Germany:Transformations in the Study of German Culture and History. Ed. by John A. McCarthy, Walter Grünzweig, and Thomas Koebner. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2004. 411 pp.
Co-editor. Lessing International: Lessing Reception Abroad. Ed. by John A. McCarthy, Herbert Rowland & Richard Schade), Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2001. 431 pp.
 Co-Editor. The Future of Germanistik in the USA: Changing Our Prospects. Ed. by John A. McCarthy and Katrin Schneider. Nashville: Distributed by Vanderbilt U P, 1996. xv + 177pp.
Co-Editor. Zensur und Kultur: Zwischen Weimarer Klassik und Weimarer Republik. Ed. John A. McCarthy & Werner von der Ohe. Niemeyer: Tübingen, 1995. vi + 243 pp.
Co-Author with Sven Age Jorgensen, Herbert Jaumann, and Horst Thomé. Christoph Martin Wieland: Epoche - Werk - Wirkung. München: Beck Verlag, 1994. 234 pp.
Co-Editor. Disrupted Patterns: On Chaos and Order in the Enlightenment. Ed. by Theodore E. Braun and John A. McCarthy. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi Publishers, 2000. xiii + 221 pp.
 
 
 
Crossing Boundaries: A Theory and History of Essayistic Writing in German (1680-1815). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. Pp.xiv, 350. [Winner of the DAAD-GSA Prize for the best book on German literature]
C.M. Wieland: The Man and His Work. TWAS 528. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979. 192 pp.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
recent articles and book chapters

“The Making of a German Cult: Chr. M. Wieland and German Shakespeare Reception around 1770.” In: Der literarische Transfer zwischen Frankreich, Grossbrittanien und dem deutschsprachigen Raum im Zeitalter der Weltliteratur (1770-1850). Buchforschung. Beiträge zum Buchwesen in Österreich. Hg. Peter R. Frank und Murray G. Hall. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011/12. 30 pp. in manuscript.

“’Live Like a Man and not Like a Monkey’: Nietzsche’s Philosophic Vitalism and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.” In: Evolutionary Literature: The Legacy of Darwin in European Cultures. Ed. by Nicholas Saul and Simon James. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Publishers, 2011. 20 pp. In press.

“Energy and Schiller's Aesthetics from the Philosophical to the Aesthetic Letters.” In: Who is this Schiller Now?Essays on his Reception and Significance. Ed.by Jeffrey L. High, Nicholas Martin, and Norbert Oellers. Rochester NY: Camden House, 2011. 165-86. In Press.

“Rear-Guard Actions Against an ‘Impoverishing Delusion.’ Anmerkungen zur Situation der Auslandsgermanistik in den Americas.” Die Unterrichtspraxis 43.1 (spring 2010): 31-40.

“Criticism & Experience: Philosophy & Literature in the German Enlightenment.” German Literature and Philosophy. Ed. By Nicholas Saul. Cambridge UK: Cambridge U P, 2010. 13-56. Paperback reprint of 2002 edition.

“Forms and Objectives of Romantic Criticism.” In: The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Ed. by Nicholas Saul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 101-18.
 
“’The Little Divine Machine’: The Soul/Body Problem Revisited.” In: Neuroscience, Consciousness, God. Ed. by Volney P. Gay. Pegasus P, 2009.
 
“1989/90 and the New Geography of German Studies in the USA.” Decline of the West? The Fate of the Atlantic Community after the Cold War.“ An International Conference at the University of Pennsylvania held 15-17 October 2009.
 
„Essayistik und Literaturkritik.“ Wieland Handbuch. Hrsg. Jutta Heinz. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008. 350-73.
 
“Lessing, Transkulturalität und die europäische Öffentlichkeit.“ In: G. E. Lessing and Transcultural German Studies. Ed. by Steve Martinson. Winter Verlag, 2008. 297-316.
 
“Abermals ‘Sektionsberichte des Lasters.’ Bilaterale Reformvorstellungen in Literatur und Recht um 1800.” Internationals Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 31.2 (2006): 100-30.
 
“Faktum und Fiktion. Die Darstellung bürgerlicher Schichten zur Zeit des Sturm und Drang.” In: Bürgerlichkeit im 18. Jahrhundert. Ed. by Hans Erwin Friedrich, Fotis Jannidis, and Marianne Willems. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2006. 241-67.
 
“Die Goethe-Gemeinde in Amerika.” In: Goethe in Gesellschaft. Zur Geschichte einer literarischen Vereinigung vom Kaiserreich bis zum geteilten Deutschland. Ed. by Jochen Golz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Köln-Weimar-Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2005. Pp. 123-36.
 
„Kopernikus und die bewegliche Schönheit: Schiller und die Gravitationslehre.“ In: Schillers Natur. Leben, Denken und literarisches Schaffen. Sonderheft 6 der Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeiner Kunstwissenschaft. Ed. by Georg Braungart und Bernhard Greiner unter Mitwirkung von Lutz-Hennig Pietsch. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 2005. Pp. 15-37.
 
“The Study of Germany in the United States.” In: The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1968-1990. A Handbook. Ed. by Detlef Junker. Vol. 2. Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. 287-93.
 
“Goethe and Schiller after Adorno: Using the Past to See the Future.” In: The Many Faces of Germany: Transformations in the Study of German Culture and History. Ed. John A. McCarthy, Walter Grünzweig, and Thomas Koebner. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2004. Pp. 319-335.
 
“Disciplining History: Schiller als Historiograph.” Goethe Yearbook XII (2004): 209-225.
“Ein literarischer Parforceritt: Jagd- und Jägermotive in der deutschen Literatur.” Jagdkultur – gestern, heute, morgen. Schriftenreite des Jagdverbandes Bayern: 45-58.
“Jagdmotive in der Literatur der Goethezeit.” Internationale Tagung „Die Jagd in Kunst und Literatur“ des Landesjagdverbandes Bayern e.V. : 77-92
  
Currently, McCarthy is working on a book on cultural turns associated with the reception of the Sturm-und-Drang movement, 1770-1990.
 
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Rev. May 2010