Susan Bernstein
Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies:
Comparative Literature, German Studies
Phone: +1 401 863 3165
Phone 2: +1 401 863 2818
Susan_Bernstein@Brown.EDU
Susan Bernstein works in German, French, and English and American literature of the 18th through 20th centuries. She has particular interests in literary theory, literature and the arts (specifically music and architecture), Romanticism, philosophy, and poetry.
Biography
Susan Bernstein works in German, French and English and American literature of the 18th-20th centuries. She has particular interests in literary theory, literature and the arts, Romanticism, philosophy and poetry. Bernstein received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University, her B.A. from Yale and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. She also studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. She has published articles on Nietzsche, Kant, Heine, Shelley and others; her book, Virtuosity of the Nineteenth Century: Performing Music and Language in Heine, Liszt and Baudelaire was published by Stanford University Press in 1998. She began teaching at Brown in 1989.
Interests
Susan Bernstein's interests extend to the history of literary theory and western aesthetics, lyric poetry in the European tradition, the Bildungsroman, Romanticism, phenomenology and poetry, and individual topics such as the uncanny, irony, and Romantic genre theory. In particular, her book, Virtuosity of the 19th Century: Performing Music and Language in Heine, Liszt and Baudelaire, examines the reflexive relationship between performance of music and language. Currently, she is completing a book entitled Housing Problems: Writing and Architecture in Goethe, Walpole, Freud, and Heidegger.
Degrees
Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University
Awards
- Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, spring 2005
- Wriston Course Development Grant, summer 2003
- Wayland Collegium Grant, course development, summer 2003
- Visiting Scholar, American Academy in Rome, May 2000
- Salomon Research Award, Brown University, 1998
- Small Grants Fund Award, Brown University (to support summer research in Germany), 1997, 1998
- Wayland Collegium Grant (with Karen Newman), 1994
- Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship, 1994
- Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (stipend for research in Germany), 1993
- Owen Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University, 1984-86
- Regents' Intern Fellowship, University of California at Berkeley, 1981-84
- Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (stipend for study in Berlin), 1979-80
Affiliations
Modern Language Association
North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
Teaching
Introduction to the Theory of Literature; Romanticism, Romantic poetry; Theory of the Lyric; Literature and the Arts; Nietzsche; German Lyric Poetry; the Bildungsroman; Phenomenology and Poetry; Irony; Uncanny Tales
Funded Research
Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, spring 2005 ($10,000)
Wriston Course Development Grant, summer 2003 ($1,500)
Wayland Collegium Grant, course development, summer 2003 ($2,000)
Salomon Research Award, Brown University, 1998 ($15,000)
Small Grants Fund Award, Brown University (to support summer research in Germany), 1997, 1998 ($2,000)
Wayland Collegium Grant (with Karen Newman), 1994 ($2,500)
Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship, 1994 (one semester paid leave)
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (stipend for research in Germany), 1993 ($3,000)
