Dennis Johannssen

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:
2019, “Andacht zum Kleinen: Zu Benjamins Leibniz-Lektüren.” Entwendungen: Walter Benjamin und seine Quellen. Edited by Jessica Nitsche and Nadine Werner. München: Fink, 2019. 281–302.

2018, “Miniaturization: Reading Benjamin in the Digital Age.” MLN 133:3 (April 2018): 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, 2018. 1252–69.

2018, Review of Peter Trawny, Was ist Deutsch? Adornos verratenes Vermächtnis. MLN 133:3 (April 2018): 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, 2017. 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, 2014. 143–62.

2014, Review of Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy. Edited by Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick. The German Quarterly 87/1 (Winter 2014): 129–30.

2013, “Towards a Negative Anthropology: Critical Theory’s Altercations with Philosophical Anthropology.” Anthropology and Materialism 1 (2013). 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 (2012): 235–53.

2010, “Utopie und Differenz. Martin Jay im Gespräch mit Dennis

Works in progress:
Coming to Terms: Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno, and the Violence of Language. Monograph. Under review.

Forces of Education: Walter Benjamin and the Politics of Pedagogy. Edited Volume. In preparation.

“Walter Benjamin’s Concept of Education.” Perspectiva: Revista do Centro de Ciências da Educação. Special Issue on Critical Theory and Education. Forthcoming.

“Disquieting Analogies: Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger on Medieval Speculative Grammar.” Under review.