John Walker
MA, PhD
Senior Lecturer, German Studies
Contact details
Department of European Cultures and Languages
Birkbeck, University of London
43 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD
E-mail: j.walker@bbk.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7631 6135
Profile
John's major interests are in nineteenth- and eighteenth-century German literature, philosophy and the history of ideas; he welcomes applications from prospective research students in these areas. He is especially interested in the interplay beween narrative realism and philosophical idealism in the nineteenth-century German novel, on which he has completed a book which will be published by Legenda in May, 2011. He has also published a book and edited a collection of articles on Hegel and published widely on classical German literature and nineteenth century German thought. He is currently working on a book on the thought of the German Enlightenment in relation to current debates about intercultural communication.
Publications:
Books:
Forthcoming: The Truth of Realism: A Reassessment of the German Realist Novel, Oxford, Legenda, May 2011.
History, Spirit and Experience, Frankfurt am Main and New York, Peter Lang Verlag, 1995, pp 179.
(edited) Thought and Faith in the Philosophy of Hegel, Dordrecht and Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991, pp 190.
Chapters in Books:
‘Art, Religion and the Modernity of Hegel’, in Hegel and the Arts, in Stephen Houlgate (ed.): Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 2007, pp 174-198.
‘The Critical Image: Heinrich Heine and a Liberal German Identity’, in Mary Anne Perkins and Martin Liebscher (eds.): Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in German Thought and Culture 1789-1914. Essays on the Emergence of Europe, Lewiston, NY and Lampeter, Edwin Mellen Press, 2006, pp 131-159.
‘Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold and the Misunderstanding of the German Idea’, in Rudiger Goerner (ed.) Anglo-German Affinities and Antipathies, Munich, Iudicium Verlag, 2004, pp 23-39.
‘Two Realisms: German Realism and Philosophy 1830-1890’, in Nicholas Saul (ed.): Philosophy and German Literature 1700-1990, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp 102-149. Reprinted October 2010.
‘Nietzsche, Christianity and The Legitimacy of Tradition’ in Keith Ansell-Pearson (ed.) Nietzsche and Modern Philosophy, London, Routledge, 1991, pp 29-48.
‘Absolute Knowledge and the Experience of Faith. The Relevance of the Religious Dimension in Hegel’s Thought’ in John Walker (ed.) Thought and Faith in the Philosophy of Hegel, Dordrecht and Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991, pp 151-169.
‘Hegel and Religion’, in David Lamb (ed.) Hegel and Modern Philosophy, London, Routledge, 1987, pp 156-187.
Articles:
'Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold and the Misunderstanding of the German Idea', in Rüdiger Goerner (ed.): Anglo-German Affinities and Antipathies, Munich and London (Iudicium Verlag in association with Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies), 2005, 23-38.
‘Poetik und Werk: Zur Eigenstandigkeit von Hebbels Dramenkonzeption’, in Hebbel Jahrbuch 60, 2005, herausgegeben von Monika Ritzer, pp 91-105.
‘Philosophy, Religion and the End of Hegel’, in Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, 47/48, 2003, pp 61-73.
‘The Tradition of Enlightenment and the Tradition of Empathy: Georg Buechner and the Legacy of Classical German Drama’, in London German Studies, VI, 1998, pp 147-164.
‘Experiment und Entdeckung: The Relevance of Drama to Boll’s Literary Development’ in The University of Dayton Review, Summer 1997, 24/3, pp 133-145.
‘ “Ach die Kunst, ach, die erbarmliche Wirklichkeit!” Suffering, Empathy and the Relevance of Realism in Buchner’s Lenz’, in Forum for Modern Languages Studies, 1997, xxxiii, 2, pp 156-170. To be reprinted 2011.
‘Der echte Ring vermutlich ging verloren: Lessing’s Ringparabel and the Contingency of Enlightenment in Nathan der Weise, in Oxford German Studies, 23, 1994, pp 44-70.
‘Und Was, wenn Offenbarung uns nicht wird: Kleist’s Kantkrise and Theatrical Revelation in Amphitryon’, in Oxford German Studies, 22, 1993, pp 84-110. Reprinted April 2008, in Drama Criticism, 29, pp 208-219.
‘The Concept of Revelation and Hegel’s Historical Realism’, in Hegel-Studien, 24, 1989, pp. 79-96.
Ongoing projects and conference papers
19 November 2010: 'Herder, Humboldt and Habermas: Some Reflections on Multiculturalism, Translation and the Difference of the German Enlightenment', paper to be presented at the Dept of European Cultures & Languages research symposium
13-14 December 2010: John will be leading an international workshop in Cambridge as theme convenor for the 'Historical, Social and Political Thought' strand of the Impact of Idealism project. This is an international research project on the reception of German Idealism, which will culminate in a plenary conference in Cambridge in September 2012 and lead to a four volume collection to be published by Cambridge University Press, of which John will be joint editor.
15-16 December 2010: 'The Autonomy of Theology in the Reception of German Idealism', paper to be delivered at the 'Theology' workshop of the same project.
In connection with his work on multiculturalism, John is part of the international research network 'Orient and Occident', which links the universities of Warwick, Vienna and New Delhi and focuses on the reception of Asian thought in Germany.
