Elisabeth Krimmer
Associate Professor of German
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1998
Email: emkrimmer@ucdavis.edu
Office: 411 Sproul
Office Hours
Research Interests
- Gender studies
- History and representation of war
- German literature 1800-2000
- Hollywood film
Books
- In the Company of Men: Cross-Dressed Women Around 1800. Detroit: Wayne State Press, 2004.
- Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines: Contemporary Screen Images of Women. Co-author Susanne Kord. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
- The Representation of War in German Literature from 1800 to the Present. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
Books in Progress
- Enlightened War: Theories and Cultures of Warfare in Eighteenth Century Germany. Co-editor: Patricia Simpson. [under consideration at Camden House]?
- The Peter Pan Syndrome: Masculinity in Hollywood Film from Clinton to Bush. Co-author Susanne Kord.
Articles
- "More War Stories: Stalingrad (1993) and Der Untergang (2004)." The Collapse of the Conventional: German Film and its Politics at the Turn of the New Century. Eds. Jaimey Fisher and Brad Prager. Detroit: Wayne State Press, 2009.
- "A New Kind of Woman: The Feminization of the Soldier in Works by Remarque, Jünger, and Böll." Edinburgh Yearbook. Eds. Sara Colvin and Peter Davies. Rochester: Camden House, 2008: 170-187.
- "The Gender of Terror: War as (Im)Moral Institution in Kleist’s Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea." The German Quarterly 81:1 (2008): 67-86.
- "A Portrait of War, a Grammar of Peace: Goethe, Laukhard, and the Campaign of 1792." German Life and Letters LXI.1 (2008): 46-60.
- "A Nation of Victims? Trauma and Narrative in Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum and Crabwalk," Seminar, accepted for publication, forthcoming.
- "Transcendental Soldiers: Warfare in Schiller's Wallenstein and Die Jungfrau von Orleans." Eighteenth-Century Fiction, special issue on War, forthcoming.
- Abortive Bildung: Women Writers, Male Bonds, and Would-Be Fathers. Challenging Separate Spheres: Female Bildung in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Germany. Ed. Marjanne Gooze. Peter Lang, forthcoming.
- "Eviva Il Cotello? Castrati in German Literature and Culture Around 1800." PMLA 120.5 (2005): 1543-1559.
- "Female War Stories: Violence and Trauma in Works by Therese Huber and Caroline de la Motte-Fouqué." Internationales Jahrbuch der Bettina-von-Arnim Gesellschaft 17 (2005): 123-135.
- "German Women Writers and Classicism." The Literature of Weimar Classicism. Ed. Simon Richer. Vol. 7 of Camden House History of German Literature. Rochester: Camden House. 2005. 237-264.
- "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Bildung and Paternity in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." The German Quarterly 77.3 (2004): 257-277.
- "Die allmähliche Verfertigung des Geschlechts beim Anziehen: Epistemologies of the Body in Kleist's Die Familie Schroffenstein." Body Dialectics in the Age of Goethe. Eds. Marianne Henn and Holger A. Pausch. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003. 347-364.
- "Digging the Undead: Death and Desire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." (co-author: Shilpa Raval). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eds. David Lathery and Rhonda Wilcox. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002. 153-164.
- "A Garden of Her Own: Noble Savages and Superior Europeans in Sophie von La Roche's Erscheinungen am See Oneida." Harmony in Discord: German Women Writers in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Ed. Laura Martin. Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main, 2002. 21-43.
- "A Spaniard in the Attic: The Texture of Gender in Friederike Helene Unger's Rosalie und Nettchen." Germans at their Best: Making Use of Material and Mass Popular Culture. Eds. John Plews and Chris Lorey. Special Issue of the Journal of Popular Culture 34.3 (2001): 209-227.
- "Who Wants to Be a Man Anymore? Cross-Dressing in American Movies of the 90s." Subverting Masculinity: Alternative and Hegemonic Versions of Masculinity in Contemporary Culture. Eds. Russo West and Frank Lay. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001. 29-43.
- "Officer and Lady: Pants and Politics in Caroline de la Motte-Fouqués Das Heldenmädchen aus der Vendée." Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture 30 (2001): 165-181.
- "A Perfect Intimacy With Death: Death, Imagination, and Femininity in the Works of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff." Women in German Yearbook 17 (2001): 121-140.
- "Bettina & Louise: Gender Constructions in Bettina Brentano-von Arnim's Clemens Brentanos Frühlingskranz." Conquering Women: Women and War in the German Cultural Imagination. Eds. Hilary Collier-Sy-Quia and Susanne Baackmann. Berkeley: Center for International and Area Studies at the University of California, 2000. 156-176.
- "Ideology's Work is Never Done: A New Historicist Analysis of Mädchen in Uniform." West Virginia University Philological Papers 45 (1999): 38-46.
- "Sartorial Transgressions: Re-Dressing Class and Gender Hierarchies in Masquerades and Travesties." Unwrapping Goethe's Weimar: Essays in Cultural Studies and Local Knowledge. Eds. Susanne Kord, Burkhard Henke, and Simon Richter. Columbia: Camden House, 1999. 191-212.
- "Dangerous Practices: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's Drama Bertha." Thalia's Daughters: German Women Dramatists from the 18th Century to the Present. Eds. Susan Cocalis and Ferrel Rose. Tübingen: Francke, 1996. 115-128.
Articles Submitted
- "TV Nation: The Representation of Death in Warfare in Works by Peter Handke and Elfriede Jelinek." Women and Death. Rochester: Camden House.
- "Schon wieder Krieg: Der Kluge hort’s nicht gern:" Warfare in Goethe’s Faust II. Enlightened War: Theories and Cultures of Warfare in Eighteenth Century Germany. Eds. Elisabeth Krimmer and Patricia Simpson.
Articles in Progress
- "Between Terror and Transcendence: A Reading of Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas." German Life and Letters. Eds. Sean Allan and Elystan Griffiths.
- "God’s Warriors, Mercenaries, or Freedom Fighters? Politics, Warfare, and Religion in Friedrich Schiller’s Geschichte des Dreissigjährigen Kriegs. Ed. Jeffrey High."
Book Reviews
- "Catherine E. Rigby: Transgressions of the Feminine: Tragedy, Enlightenment, and the Figure of Woman in Classical German Drama." Women in German Newsletter Spring 1997.
- "Susanne Kord: Sich einen Namen machen: Anonymität und weibliche Autorschaft 1700-1900." Goethe Yearbook 9 (1999): 438-440.
- "Henriette Herwig: Das ewig Männliche zieht uns hinab: Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre: Geschlechterdifferenz, sozialer Wandel, historische Anthropologie." The German Quarterly 72.1 (1999): 90-91.
- "Charlotte Marlo Werner: Goethes Herzogin Anna Amalia: Fürstin zwischen Rokoko und Revolution."Goethe Yearbook 10 (2001): 320-321.
- "Marianne Henn and Britta Hufeisen, ed.: Frauen MitLesen MitSchreiben: Beiträge zur literatur- und sprachwissenschaftlichen Frauenforschung." Colloquia Germanica 32.1 (1999): 113-114.
- "Catriona MacLeod: Embodying Ambiguity: Androgyny and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Keller." Colloquia Germanica 32.4 (1999): 367-368.
- "Gertrud Lehnert: Wenn Frauen Männerkleidung tragen: Geschlecht und Maskerade in Literatur und Geschichte; Andrea Stoll and Verena Wodtke-Werner, ed.: Sakkorausch und Rollentausch: Männliche Leitbilder als Freiheitsentwürfe von Frauen." The German Quarterly 72.3 (1999): 312-314.
- "Todd Kontje: Women, the Novel, and the German Nation (1771-1871): Domestic Fiction in the Fatherland." Lessing Yearbook 33 (2001): 383-385.
- "Helga Stipa Madland: Marianne Ehrmann: Reason and Emotion in Her Life and Works." Seminar 37.4 (2001): 355-356.
- "Sigrid Damm: Christiane und Goethe: Eine Recherche." Seminar 37.4 (2001): 356-357.
- "Ute Hechtfischer, Renate Hof, Inge Stephan, and Flora Veit-Wild, eds. Metzler Autorinnen Lexikon." German Quarterly 73.1 (2000): 126-127.
- "Katherine R. Goodman: Amazons and Apprentices: Women and the German Parnassus in the Early Enlightenment." German Quarterly 73.4 (2000): 422-423.
- "Margaretmary Daley: Women of Letters: A Study of Self and Genre in the Personal Writing of Caroline Schlegel-Schelling, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, and Bettina von Arnim." German Studies Review 23.3 (2000): 590-591.
- "Claudia Breger: Ortlosigkeit des Fremden: Zigeunerinnen und Zigeuner in der deutschsprachigen Literatur um 1800." German Studies Review 24.1 (2001): 167-168.
- "Mechthilde Vahsen: Die Politisierung des weiblichen Subjekts: Deutsche Romanautorinnen und die Französische Revolution 1790-1820." Seminar 38.4 (2002): 384-386.
- "Christoph Lorey and John L. Plews, ed.: Queering the Canon: Defying Sights in German Literature and Culture." International Fiction Review, 29 (2002): 102-103.
- "Angela Esterhammer: The Romantic Performative: Language and Action in British and German Romanticism." German Studies Review 25.2 (2002): 352-53.
- "Robert Tobin: Warm Brothers: Queer Theory and the Age of Goethe." Colloquia Germanica 34.3/4 (2001): 339-340.
- "Benedikte Naubert: Neue Volksmärchen der Deutschen: Kommentierte Studienausgabe der Erstauflage," ed. Marianne Henn et. al. Seminar 39.3 (2003): 261-262.
- "Shawn C. Jarvis and Jeannine Blackwell, ed.: The Queen's Mirror: Fairy Tales by German Women, 1780-1900." The German Quarterly 76.1 (2003): 128-129.
- "Dawson, Ruth P.: The Contested Quill: Literature by Women in Germany, 1770-1800." German Studies Review 27.3 (2004): 608-609.
- "Stockhorst, Stefanie: Fürstenpreis und Kunstprogramm: Sozial- und gattungsgeschichtliche Studien zu Goethes Gelegenheitsdichtungen für den Weimarer Hof." German Studies Review 28.2 (2005): 396-397.
- "Schneider, Thomas F. and Hans Wagener, eds.: Von Richthofen bis Remarque: Deutschsprachige Prosa zum I. Weltkrieg." German Quarterly, forthcoming.
- "Tjeder, David: The Power of Character: Middle-Class Masculinities, 1800-1900." Colloquia Germanica, forthcoming.
- "Preußer, Heinz Peter, ed.: Krieg in den Medien." The German Quarterly, in progress.
- "Marianne Henn, Irmela von der Luehe, and Anita Runge, eds.: Geschichte(n)-Erzählen: Konstruktionen von Vergangenheit in literarischen Werken deutschsprachiger Autorinnen seit dem 18. Jahrhundert." Seminar, in progress.
Honors and Awards
- Mount Holyoke College Faculty Grant 2003, to assist with scholarly work
- Mount Holyoke College Faculty Grant 2003, for design of a First-Year Tutorial
- Mount Holyoke College Stipend for Course Development, for design of a First-Year Seminar, 2002
- Mount Holyoke College Faculty Grant 2002, to assist with scholarly work
- Mount Holyoke College Faculty Grant 2001, to assist with scholarly work
- Grant for design of an undergraduate seminar, awarded by the University of Missouri, 1999
- Mount Holyoke College Faculty Grant 1999, to assist with scholarly work
- Mellon Web Grant for designing a website on German Romanticism, 1998
- University of Massachusetts Graduate School Fellowship, 1996
Teaching Fields/Courses Taught
- Language instruction courses: German 101-103, 106
- Advanced Composition and Conversation
German Literature and Culture Courses
- Germans at War 1792-2000: graduate course, taught in German, discusses the representation of warfare in German literature from the late eighteenth century to the present.
- Nostalgia and Utopia: German Literature and Culture in the Early Nineteenth Century: survey course, taught in German.
- German Romanticism: An Interdisciplinary Survey: graduate seminar, taught in German, introduces students to texts by male and female writers of German Romanticism; music, art, historical and philosophical documents complement literary readings (also taught as upper-level undergraduate seminar).
- German Civilization: large lecture class taught in English; introduces students to German history, literature, and culture from the Middle Ages to the present.
- The Uncanny in German Literature and Culture from the Eighteenth Century to the Present: undergraduate seminar; includes art and opera, introduces students to structuralist and psychoanalytic theories of the uncanny; literary texts from the eighteenth century to the present.
- German Literature and Its Context from the Eighteenth Century to the Present: undergraduate seminar; introduces students to major genres and epochs of German literature from the eighteenth century to the present including social, political, and cultural contexts.
- From Marlene Dietrich to Run Lola Run: German Women and Film: undergraduate seminar; explores the work of German women directors and actresses from the Weimar Republic to the present.
Interdisciplinary Courses
- Pasts and Presences: Introduction to the Humanities in the West: seminar for first-year students; introduces students to canonical texts (Iliad, Oedipus, Antigone, Medea, 1 and 2 Samuel, Hamlet, Henry IV, Henry V).
- Pasts and Presences: Introduction to the Humanities in the West II: seminar for first-year students; introduces students to canonical texts (Don Giovanni, Dangerous Liaisons, Faust, The Master and Margarita, Man and Superman, Arcadia).
- Gender Benders: interdisciplinary seminar in English (Fidelio, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Rosenkavalier, Orlando, arrasine).
- Witches: Myth and Reality: first-year seminar; covers European pagan religions and the spread of Christianity; the Burning Times in early modern Europe; 17th century New England and the Salem witch trials.