Dennis Johannßen
Assistant Professor of Languages and Literary Studies
Courses:
Endangered Worlds: Histories of Environmentalism in Film, Spring 2020
World Pictures: Introduction to Visual Culture, Spring 2020
Trauma and Testimony in Post-War German Cinema, Fall 2019
Diversity and Discrimination in German Literature and Film, Spring 2018
German Romanticism in Literature, Music, and the Visual Arts, Fall 2019
Research & Teaching Interest:
In my work, I explore new fusions of German and Jewish culture in contemporary literature and film. My research interests include Critical Theory, Trauma Studies, Media Philology, Environmental Humanities, and Digital Humanities. I have published articles on Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, the history of the Frankfurt School, practices of miniaturization, non-instrumental theories of language, and the political imagination of the Weimar Republic. For more on my research, please see here.
Selected publications/filmography:
2022, Forces of Education: Walter Benjamin and the Politics of Pedagogy. Edited by Dennis Johannßen and Dominik Zechner. Bloomsbury.
2022, “Editor’s Introduction,” co-authored with Dominik Zechner. Forces of Education: Walter Benjamin and the Politics of Pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury. 14–32.
2022, “Chronicle of Benjamin’s School and Student Years,” co-authored with Dominik Zechner. Forces of Education: Walter Benjamin and the Politics of Pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury. 35–50.
2022, “Disquieting Analogies: Benjamin and Heidegger on Medieval Speculative Grammar.” The German Quarterly 95, no. 1: 1–18.
2022, “Benjamin’s Ecologue: Language and Environmental Trauma in the Anthropocene.” Perspectiva 40, no. 1: 1–17.
2019, “Andacht zum Kleinen: Zu Benjamins Leibniz-Lektüren.” Entwendungen: Walter Benjamin und seine Quellen. Edited by Jessica Nitsche and Nadine Werner. München: Fink. 281–302.
2018, “Miniaturization: Reading Benjamin in the Digital Age.” MLN 133, no. 3: 637–53.
2018, “Humanism and Anthropology from Walter Benjamin to Ulrich Sonnemann.” Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Edited by Beverly Best, Werner Bonefeld, and Chris O’Kane. London: Sage. 1252–69.
2018, Review of Peter Trawny, Was ist Deutsch? Adornos verratenes Vermächtnis. MLN 133, no. 3: 793–5.
2017, “Mensch und Dasein in Heideggers Sein und Zeit.” Das Leben im Menschen oder der Mensch im Leben? Deutsch-Französische Genealogien zwischen Anthropologie und Anti-Humanismus. Edited by Thomas Ebke and Caterina Zanfi. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag Potsdam. 91–104.
2014, “Leibhafte Politik: Zum psychophysischen Problem im Zusammenhang des anthropologischen Materialismus.” Anthropologischer Materialismus und Materialismus der Begegnung. Edited by Marc Berdet and Thomas Ebke. Berlin: Xenomoi. 143–62.
2014, Review of Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy. Edited by Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick. The German Quarterly 87, no. 1: 129–30.
2013, “Towards a Negative Anthropology: Critical Theory’s Altercations with Philosophical Anthropology.” Anthropology and Materialism 1. http://am.revues.org/194.
2012, Review Essay, “Jenseits von Aura und Erlebnis: Zu vier aktuellen Beiträgen der US-amerikanischen Walter-Benjamin-Forschung.” Zeitschrift für kritische Theorie 34/35: 235–53.
2010, “Utopie und Differenz. Martin Jay im Gespräch mit Dennis Johannßen.” Zeitschrift für kritische Theorie 30/31: 171–92.