Martin Klebes
Research and Teaching Profile
Martin Klebes is Associate Professor of German and the Editor of the electronic interdisciplary German Studies journal Konturen that is housed in the department. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literary Studies in 2003 from Northwestern University. He taught at Kenyon College and at the University of New Mexico before coming to Oregon in 2007.
Martin is the author of Wittgenstein’s Novels (Routledge, 2006; paperback released in 2012), and translator of Ernst-Wilhelm Händler’s debut collection of stories, City with Houses (Northwestern University Press, 2002). He also translated several chapters in a collection of writings by Hannah Arendt, entitled Reflections on Literature and Culture (Stanford University Press, 2007). Recent publications include articles on Hermann Broch and on Hannah Arendt’s theory of active reading.
Martin’s research focuses on the interrelation between literary and philosophical texts from the Enlightenment to the present, with particular emphasis on the German tradition, but also including French and American critical thought and contemporary texts, novels in particular. His current project concerns brother/sister relations in 19th- and 20th- century literary and philosophical writers from Heinrich von Kleist to Robert Walser.
For almost 15 years, Martin was a member of the editorial board of the electronic journal Parapluie; Click on the link to browse through some past journal issues.
Recent courses: The Culture of Money, Was ist ein Klassiker?, From Kierkegaard to Kafka, Denken, Reden, Schreiben, Modernity and Its Progress (Honors College), Hamlet/Deutschland, Literature and Photography (Comparative Literature), Dinge, Mythen, Ist es eine Komödie?
Articles Online
Coordinating editor for the following parapluie issues:
- parapluie 25: Übertragungen (co-edited with Alexander Schultz, Fall 2008).
- parapluie 20: Ohr (co-edited with Anke Bahl, Spring 2005).
- parapluie 10: Virtuelle Städte (Summer 2001).
Articles for parapluie:
- “Email aus Chicago: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (April 2002).
- “Es war einmal der Mensch: Comte und Houellebecq erinnern (an) uns,” parapluie 8: Zeitenwenden (Summer 2000).
- “Heart of Lightness: Tim im Kongo und in Amerika,” parapluie 5: Perspektive Afrika (Winter 1998).
- “Art-Crime, Inc.: Das Rätsel um die Kunst,” parapluie 4: Schönheit und Ideal (Summer 1998).
- “Kultur-Nachhilfe in Las Vegas,” parapluie 3: Unkultur (Winter 1997).
- “Wunschlos glücklich?,” parapluie 2: Sehnsucht (Summer 1997).
Reviews for parapluie:
- “Heiner Frost: Lenzenhorst oder Die Zeit ausschütten,” parapluie 20: Ohr (Spring 2005).
- “Greil Marcus: Invisible Republic,” parapluie 5: Perspektive Afrika (Winter 1998).
- “Sam Shepard: Spencer Tracy ist nicht tot. Erzählungen,” parapluie 4: Schönheit und Ideal (Summer 1998).
Articles for Konturen
"Carol Jacobs, Sebald's Vision" (book review), Konturen 10 (2019).
"Mutiny of an Error: Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard on Suicide," Konturen 7 (2015).
- “If Worlds Were Stories,” Konturen 2 (2009).