Education

  • PhD, German Literature New York University 2012
  • MA, German Literature, History, and English Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg 2006
  • Visiting Graduate Student University of Michigan 2003-2004

Biography

Thorsten Carstensen received his PhD from New York University. In his research, he focuses on 20th-century German and Austrian literature. His first book, Romanisches Erzählen: Peter Handke und die epische Tradition, was published with Wallstein Verlag in 2013. He is also the co-editor of the first unabridged English translation of Hans Fallada's novel Wolf Among Wolves.

Other publications include journal articles on Handke, Thomas Bernhard, Ernst Jünger, and Hermann Broch. His volume on literature and the life reform movements around 1900 (co-edited with Marcel Schmid) was published with Transcript Verlag in 2016. His current research explores the many connections between literature and architecture since 1870. He is also preparing an edited volume (together with Mattias Pirholt) on Alltag in der Literatur der Moderne.

Academic interests

  • 19th- and 20th-century German Literature
  • Literature and Architecture
  • Exile and Literature
  • Travel Literature
  • German Literature and the "Lebensreform" movements

Teaching

Spring 2017:

  • G 370/G371: German Cinema / Der deutsche Film
  • G 408: Love and Nature in the Age of Romanticism

Awards

  • OVPIA Short-Term Faculty Exchange (IU), Hamburg University, 2016
  • Trustees Teaching Award (IUPUI), 2016
  • Shipps Faculty Award (IUPUI), 2014, 2015, 2016
  • School of Liberal Arts Summer Research Grant (IUPUI), 2013 and 2016
  • Arts and Humanities Internal Grant (IUPUI), 2013
  • New Frontiers Exploratory Travel Fellowship, Indiana University, 2013
  • Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, New York University (2012, declined)
  • GSAS Predoctoral Summer Fellowship, New York University, 2008 and 2009
  • Henry M. MacCracken Fellowship, New York University (2007 - 2012)
  • DAAD travel fellowship, 2005
  • Max Kade Fellowship, University of Michigan (2003/2004)
  • Baden-Württemberg travel fellowship, 2003
  • Fulbright Scholarship, University of Michigan (2003/2004)

Publications

Monograph:

Romanisches Erzählen. Peter Handke und die epische Tradition. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2013.

Edited Volumes:

Die tägliche Schrift. Peter Handke als Leser. Bielefeld: transcript, forthcoming in 2018.

Das Abenteuer des Gewöhnlichen. Alltag in der deutschsprachigen Literatur der Moderne. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, forthcoming in 2018 (co-edited with Mattias Pirholt).

Die Literatur der Lebensreform. Kulturkritik und Aufbruchstimmung um 1900. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2016 (co-edited with Marcel Schmid).

Journal articles and book chapters:

“Lebensreformen: Praktiker/innen der Idylle,” in: Jan Gerstner/Jakob C. Heller/Christian Schmitt (eds.), Handbuch Idylle. Traditionen – Verfahren – Theorien. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, forthcoming in 2019.

“Colliding Worlds. The Disintegration of America in the Cinema of the Coen Brothers,” in: Journal of American Studies, advance online publication: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875817001797.

“Peter Handke und die Romanik,” in: Katharina Pektor (ed.), Peter Handke. Dauerausstellung Stift Griffen. Salzburg/Wien: Jung und Jung, 2017.

“Skepticism and Responsibility. Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions,” in: Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 58:4 (2017).

“Kulturlandschaft im Dschungel. Ernst Jünger auf Ceylon,” in: Michaela Holdenried/Alexander Honold/Stefan Hermes (eds.), Reiseliteratur der Moderne und Postmoderne. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2017.

“Auffrischungen für Leib und Seele. Der lebensreformerische Diskurs im Kunstwart,” in: Carstensen/Schmid (eds.), Die Literatur der Lebensreform. Aufbruchstimmung und Kulturkritik um 1900.

“Keine Spuren hinterlassen. Bauen, Wohnen und Erben bei Thomas Bernhard,” in: Gegenwartsliteratur. A German Studies Yearbook, 13 (2014).

“Die Geschichte zwischen Mann und Frau. Peter Handke und die Liebe,” in: Gegenwartsliteratur. A German Studies Yearbook, 12 (2013).

“Der Welt nachlauschen. Peter Handkes Poetik des Hörens,” in: Entwürfe. Zeitschrift für Literatur, 67 (2011).

“Herr seiner Zeit. Peter Handkes Don Juan und das heilsame Abenteuer des Erzählens,” in: Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie, 02/2009.

“Zwischen Rekonstruktion und Dekonstruktion. Hermann Brochs Roman Die Schlafwandler am Ausgang der Moderne,” in: Seminar – A Journal of German Studies, 46:1 (2010).

“Shattering the Word-Mirror in Elizabeth Costello: J.M. Coetzee's Deconstructive Experiment", in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 42:1 (2007).

Service

Book reviews in journals such as Monatshefte, German Quarterly, Journal of Austrian Literature, and Literaturkritik.de.