Winfried Fluck

Winfried Fluck

Winfried Fluck studied German, English and American literature at Freie Universität Berlin, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1972, he got his doctoral degree from Freie Universität Berlin with a dissertation on aesthetic premises in the literary criticism of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For his Habilitation, the European qualification for a professorship, he wrote a study on American realism as a form of “staged reality” (Inszenierte Wirklichkeit). After visiting scholarships at Harvard and Yale University, he got his first appointment as a professor at the University of Constance in Germany before he became Professor and Chair of North American Culture at the John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Winfried Fluck taught as a guest professor at Princeton University and the Universidad Autonoma Barcelona, and he was a research fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, the Advanced Studies Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, and the Internationales Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum in Vienna. From 2005-2008, he was chair of the Research Reviewing Committee of the German Research Council on the humanities. He is a founding member of the Graduate School of North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, funded by the German Universities Excellence Initiative, and is directing it together with Ulla Haselstein. He is also co-director of the Futures Of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College established and directed by Donald E. Pease.

Selected bibliography:

Articles:

1. “The Romance With America: Approaching America Through Its Ideals.” American Studies/Shifting Gears. Eds. Birte Christ et al. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 2010: 301-325

2. “Poor Like Us: Poverty and Recognition in American Photography.” Amerikastudien/American Studies 55:1 (2010): 63-93

3. “Introduction: Transcultural Spaces.” Transcultural Spaces: Challenges of Urbanity, Ecology, and the EnvironmentREAL Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature 26. Eds. Stefan L. Brandt, Winfried Fluck and Frank Mehring. Tübingen: Narr Verlag, 2010: ix-xviii.

4. “The Fallen Hero: John F. Kennedy in Cultural Perspective.” American Cultural Icons. Eds. Günter Leypoldt, Bernd Engler. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2010: 467-490

5. “Crossing the Threshold: Realism and the Expression of Emotions.” Siting America/Sighting Modernity: Essays in Honor of Sonja Basic. Ed. Jelena Sesnic. Zagreb: FF press, 2010: 25-42

6. “American Studies in Germany.” Encyclopedia of American Studies. Ed. Miles Orvell. 2009.

7. "American Literary History and the Romance with America." American Literary History 21 (Spring 2009): 1-18

8. “The Americanization of Modern Culture.” American Cultural History, Popular Culture and Visual Arts 5 (2005): 113-137. (in Russ.)

Books:

1. Ästhetische Theorie und literaturwissenschaftliche Methode. Eine Untersuchung ihres Zusammenhangs am Beispiel der amerikanischen Huck Finn-Kritik. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1975.

2. Populäre Kultur. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1979.

3. Theorien amerikanischer Literatur. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag, 1987.

4. Inszenierte Wirklichkeit. Der amerikanische Realismus 1865-1900. München: Fink, 1992.

5. Das kulturelle Imaginäre: Funktionsgeschichte des amerikanischen Romans, 1790-1900. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.

6. German? American? Literature? New Directions in German-American Studies, eds. Winfried Fluck and Werner Sollors. New York: Lang, 2002.

7. Wie viel Ungleichheit verträgt die Demokratie? Armut und Reichtum in den USA, hrsg. Winfried Fluck und Welf Werner. Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2003.

8. Transnational American Studies. REAL – Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature 23 (2007), hrsg. Winfried Fluck, Stefan Brandt and Ingrid Thaler.

9. Romance with America? Essays on Culture, Literature, and American Studies. Heidelberg: Winter, 2009.

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John F. Kennedy Institute website offers articles by Winfried Fluck from 1973 until today. The database consists of 131 texts.

Editorships

REAL - Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature

Nordamerikastudien, Campus Verlag

Berliner Beiträge zur Amerikanistik, John F. Kennedy-Institut