Prof. Dr. Matthias Bauer
Matthias Bauer holds a first state exam degree in English and History from Münster University (1984) and an M.A. in English Literature from Yale University (1985). He also got his Dr. phil. (1990; supervisor: Inge Leimberg) and Habilitation (1999) from Münster. He was professor of English Literature and Culture at Saarland University 2001-2004, and has been Professor of English at Tübingen since 2004.
His teaching and research focus on Early Modern English literature (Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Metaphysical Poetry), as well as nineteenth-century literature (with an emphasis on Dickens). Thematically, he is particularly interested in the relation of language and literature; for example, he chairs the interdisciplinary Research Training Group “Ambiguity: Production and Perception” (GRK 1808) and co-chairs with the linguist Sigrid Beck the project “Interpretability in Context” in the Collaborative Research Center “The Construction of Meaning” (SFB 833).He is the deputy chair of the new SFB 1391 "Andere Ästhetik" ("Different Aesthetics"), in which he co-chairs with Angelika Zirker project C5 "The Aesthetics of Co-Creativity in Early Modern English Literature." He is also concerned with questions of understanding: What does it mean to understand (literary) texts, what are the competencies needed to do so, and can understanding be facilitated by systematic annotation? These questions are addressed in a BMBF-funded project on modelling and developing competencies that is part of the Tübingen School of Education, and in the project “Explanatory Annotation” that has developed from a peer-learning project on annotating literature in the English Department. Another field of research is religion and literature; in particular processes of (de)sacralization.
Together with Inge Leimberg, Burkhard Niederhoff and Angelika Zirker, Matthias Bauer is the editor of Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate.
He is the co-editor for English Literature of the Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch and co-editor of the book series Religion und Literatur / Religion and Literature (with Birgit Weyel, LIT-Verlag) and Beiträge zur englischen und amerikanischen Literatur (with Jan Stievermann, Schöningh/Brill).
More information on Matthias Bauer's work, projects, and publications can be viewed on his ORCID page.
Thesis Supervision
Prof. Bauer is happy to supervise Bachelor's and Master's theses relating to the following topics:
- Literature from 1550-1900
- Literary theory
- Literature and linguistics
- Poetry (medieval to present day)
- Literature and religion
This list is not exhaustive - if you would like to propose a different subject, feel free to attend the office hours.
Publications
Books
Ed. (with Angelika Zirker). Strategies of Ambiguity. New York: Routledge, 2023.
Ed. (with Annette Gerok-Reiter, Jörg Robert, and Anna Pawlak). Andere Ästhetik. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022.
Mystical Linguistics: George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan. [Forthcoming]
(with Sigrid Beck, Susanne Riecker, Saskia Brockmann, Angelika Zirker, Nadine Bade, Carmen Dörge and Julia Braun). Linguistics Meets Literature: More on the Grammar of Emily Dickinson. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020.
Ed. (with Frauke Berndt and Sebastian Meixner). Ambivalenz in Sprache, Literatur und Kunst. Ambivalence in Language, Literature and Art. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2019. (Poetik und Episteme 3)
Ed. (with Susanne Friede, Klaus Ridder, Gertrud M. Rösch, Christoph Strosetzki and Angelika Zirker). Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. Vol. 60 (2019).
Ed. (with Angelika Zirker, Olga Fischer, and Christina Ljungberg). Dimensions of Iconicity. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2017.
Ed. (with Jan Stievermann). Beiträge zur Englischen und Amerikanischen Literatur. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. Vol. 35 (2017) pp.
Ed. (with Nicolas Potysch). Deutungsspielräume: Mehrdeutigkeit als kulturelles Phänomen. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang Edition, 2016.
Ed. (with Klaus Antoni, Jan Stievermann, Birgit Weyel, and Angelika Zirker). Heilige Texte: Literarisierung von Religion und Sakralisierung von Literatur im modernen Roman. Münster: LIT, 2013.
Ed. (with Rüdiger Pfeiffer-Rupp, Claudia Sasse und Ursula Wienen). Sprache, Literatur, Kultur: Translatio delectat. Festschrift für Lothar Černý. Münster: LIT, 2012.
Ed. (with Birgit Weyel). Religion und Literatur / Religion and Literature. Münster: LIT. Vol. 1 (2010) ff.
Ed. (with Angelika Zirker). Drama and Cultural Change: Turning Around Shakespeare. Trier: WVT, 2009.
Ed. (with Inge Leimberg, Burkhard Niederhoff and Angelika Zirker). Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 1 (1991) ff.; online at: www.connotations.de
Das Leben als Geschichte: Poetische Reflexion in Dickens' David Copperfield. Köln und Wien: Böhlau, 1991. (Anglistische Studien, Band 10.) [English summary in English and American Studies in German 1990: 80-82.]
Articles
(with Angelika Zirker). "'To Think These Trifles Some-Thing': Introduction." Shakespeare's First Folio 1623-2023 - Text and Afterlives. Ed. Matthias Bauer und Angelika Zirker. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024. 1-8.
(with Angelika Zirker). "The First Folio as a Sacred Text." Shakespeare's First Folio 1623-2023 - Text and Afterlives. Ed. Matthias Bauer und Angelika Zirker. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024. 85-110.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Reflections on Co-Creativity in Early Modern Drama: Stylistic Adaptation and Practices of Collaboration." Critical Survey 36.1 (2024). DOI: 10.3167/cs.2024.360106
(with Angelika Zirker). "Die Ambiguität des Schein(en)s und ihr Erkenntnispotential: appear - seem - shine." Schein und Anschein: Dynamiken ästhetischer Praxis in der Vormoderne. Ed. Annette Gerok-Reiter, Martin Kovacs, Volker Leppin, and Irmgard Männlein-Robert. Berlin: deGruyter 2023. 3-17. DOI: 10.1515/9783110725391-001
(with Martina Bross). "The (Strategic) Ambiguity of Poem Titles." Strategies of Ambiguity. New York: Routledge, 2023. 35-55. DOI: 10.4324/9781003298083
(with Angelika Zirker). "Introduction." Strategies of Ambiguity. New York: Routledge, 2023. 1-11. DOI: 10.4324/9781003298083
(with Sarah Briest, Sara Rogalski, and Angelika Zirker). "Geben und Nehmen. Eine Reflexionsfigur gemeinschaftlicher Autorschaft in der englischen Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit". Plurale Autorschaft: Ästhetik der Co-Kreativität in der Vormoderne. Ed. Stefanie Gropper, Anna Pawlak, Anja Wolkenhauer, and Angelika Zirker. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. 31-52. DOI: 10.1515/9783110755763-003
(with Gabriel Viehhauser and Angelika Zirker). "Zwischenräume. Kommentierende Annotation und hermeneutische Bedeutungserschließung in digitalen Texten." Digitale Literaturwissenschaft. Ed. Fotis Jannidis. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2023. 249-279. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-05886-7_11
(with Angelika Zirker). "Political Obfuscation and Literary Ambiguity: Levelling (up) from Boris Johnson to William Shakespeare." Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 52 (2022): 613-630. DOI: 10.1007/s41244-022-00271-1
(with Sara Rogalski and Angelika Zirker). "Tiles and Tinctures: Interdependent Co-Creativity in Early Modern English Literature." RANAM 56. Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2022. 125-140. ISSN: 0557-6989. ISBN: 979-10-344-0144-4. DOI: 10.4000/ranam.596
(with Angelika Zirker). "'I consider Iceland / [...] a very nice land': Communicableness and Co-Creativity in W.H. Auden's and Louis MacNeice's Letters from Iceland." Þáttasyrpa: Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Sprache in Nordeuropa. Ed. Anna-Katharina Heiniger, Rebecca Merkelbach, and Alexander Wilson. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2022. 325-342. DOI: 10.24053/9783772057694-031
(with Angelika Zirker, Judith Glaesser, Augustin Kelava, and Leonie Kirchhoff). "'When most I wink, then' - what? Assessing the Comprehension of Literary Texts in University Students of English as a Second Language." Language and Literature 31.3 (2022): 345-364. DOI: 10.1177/09639470211062705
(with Angelika Zirker). "Shakespeare's Medieval Co-Authors." In Search of the Culprit. Aspects of Medieval Authorship. Ed. Stefanie Gropper and Lukas Rösli. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021. 217-238. DOI: 10.1515/9783110725339
(with Sigrid Beck). "Isomorphic Mapping in Fictional Interpretation." The Language of Fiction. Ed. Emar Maier and Andreas Stokke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 277-96.
(with Angelika Zirker, Judith Glaesser, Augustin Kelava, Leonie Kirchhoff und Frank Loose). "Dimensionen fachwissenschaftlicher und fachdidaktischer Komptenzen bei angehenden Lehrkräften: Erkenntnisse zum Verhältnis beider Kompetenzformen aus den Fächern Mathematik und Englisch." Vielfältig herausgefordert: Forschungs und Entwicklungsfelder der Lehrerbildung auf dem Prüfstand. Diskurse und Ergebnisse der ersten Förderphase der Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung an der Tübingen School of Education. Ed. Nina Beck, Thorsten Bohl und Sybille Meissner. Tübingen: Tübingen UP, 2021. 35-56.
(with Miriam Lahrsow). "Annotation Guideline No. 6: SANTA 6 Collaborative Annotation as a Teaching Tool Between Theory and Practice." Journal of Cultural Analytics, 15 Jan. 2020. https://doi.org/10.22148/001c.11747.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Autorschaft und Mitschöpfung in der englischen Literatur der frühen Neuzeit: Von George Herbert bis William Shakespeare." Ästhetische Reflexionsfiguren in der Vormoderne. Ed. Annette Gerok-Reiter, Anja Wolkenhauer, Jörg Robert, and Stephanie Gropper. Heidelberg: Winter, 2019. 419-443.
Bauer, Matthias. "John Donne: Songs and Sonnets (1633)." Handbook of English Renaissance Literature. Ed. Ingo Berensmeyer. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019. 537-556.
"Ambiguity and Ambivalence before 'Ambivalence.'" Ed. Matthias Bauer, Frauke Berndt and Sebastian Meixner. Ambivalenz in Sprache, Literatur und Kunst. Ambivalence in Language, Literature and Art. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2019. (Poetik und Episteme 3.) 141-54.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Shakespeare and Stylometrics: Character Style Paradox and Unique Parallels." Anglistentag 2017: Proceedings. Sektion: Digital Humanities. Hg. Jochen Petzold und Anne-Julia Zwierlein. Trier: WVT, 2018. 31-38.
"Anschaulichkeit, Sehen und dichterische Erfindung bei Dickens." Show, don't tell: Konzepte und Strategien anschaulichen Erzählens. Hg. Tilmann Köppe und Rüdiger Singer. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2018. 149-166.
(with Angelika Zirker, Judith Glässer and Augustin Kelava). „Kompetenzmodellierung im Fach Englisch: Literaturwissenschaft meets Psychometrie.“ Quantitative Ansätze in den Literatur- und Geisteswissenschaften: Systematische und historische Perspektiven. Hg. Toni Bernhart, Marcus Willand, Sandra Richter, Andrea Albrecht. Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter, 2018. 149-72.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Guest Editors’ Introduction: Explanatory Annotation in the Context of the Digital Humanities." International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing. 11.2 (2017): 145-52.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Subtle Medievalism: The Case of Charles Dickens.“ Anglistentag 2016 Proceedings. Section: Reinventing the Middle Ages. Ed. Ute Berns and Jolene Mathieson. Trier: WVT, 2017. 91-101. (link to the full volume)
(with Saskia Brockmann). "The Iconicity of Literary Analysis: The Case of Logical Form" Dimensions of Iconicity. Ed. Angelika Zirker, Matthias Bauer, Olga Fischer, and Christina Ljungberg. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2017. 331-344.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Shakespeare und die Bilder der Vorstellung: ‘The soul’s imaginary sight’ im 27. Sonett." Intermedialität in der Frühen Neuzeit: Formen, Funktionen, Konzepte. Ed. Jörg Robert. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017. 39-54.
"Shakespeare - Vertreter der Weltliteratur." Fassaden Botschaften. Ed. Joachim Knape and Anton Schindling. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016. 284-318.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Modern Debates: Christianity and Literature, Literature and Theology and Religion and Literature." The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion. Ed. Mark Knight. London: Routledge, 2016. 58-68.
"Religious Metaphysical Poetry: George Herbert and Henry Vaughan." A History of British Poetry. Ed. Sybille Baumbach, Birgit Neumann & Ansgar Nünning. Trier: WVT, 2015. 107-20.
(with Nadine Bade, Sigrid Beck, Carmen Dörge, Burkhart von Eckartsberg, Janina Niefer, Saskia Ottschofski and Angelika Zirker). "Emily Dickinson’s “My life had stood a loaded gun” – An interdisciplinary analysis." Journal of Literary Semantics 44.2 (October 2015): 115-40. Abstract
“Secret Wordplay and What It May Tell Us.” Wordplay and Metalinguistic / Metadiscursive Reflection: Authors, Contexts, Techniques, and Meta-Reflection. Ed. Angelika Zirker and Esme Winter-Froemel. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015. 269-88.
"Ironie und Ambiguität: Annäherungen aus literaturwissenschaftlicher Sicht." Faktuales und fiktionales Erzählen. Ed. Nicole Falkenhayner, Monika Fludernik and Julia Steiner. Würzburg: Ergon, 2015. 139-58.
(with Nadine Bade, Sigrid Beck, Carmen Dörge and Angelika Zirker). "Ambiguity in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138." Ambiguity: Language and Communication. Ed. Susanne Winkler. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015. 89-109.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Whipping Boys Explained: Literary Annotation and Digital Humanities." Literary Studies in the Digital Age: An Evolving Anthology. Ed. Ray Siemens and Kenneth M. Price. Dec 2015. https://dlsanthology.mla.hcommons.org/whipping-boys-explained-literary-annotation-and-digital-humanities/
"Dickens and Sir Philip Sidney: Desire, Ethics, and Poetics." Text, Contexts and Intertextuality: Dickens as a Reader. Ed. Norbert Lennartz and Dieter Koch. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2014. 21-38.
(with Sigrid Beck). "On the Meaning of Fictional Texts." Approaches to Meaning: Composition, Values, and Interpretation. Ed. Daniel Gutzmann, Jan Köpping, and Cécile Meier. Leiden: Brill, 2014. 250-75.
"'Poetry in Fiction': A Range of Options." Connotations 23.2 (2013/14): 173-88.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Dickens and Ambiguity: The Case of A Tale of Two Cities." Dickens, Modernism and Modernity. Ed. Christine Huguet and Nathalie Vanfasse. Paris: Editions du Sagittaire, 2014. 209-28.
"Werk und Ebenbild: Religiöse Paradigmen bei Dickens." Heilige Texte: Literarisierung von Religion und Sakralisierung von Literatur im modernen Roman. Eds. Klaus Antoni, Matthias Bauer, Jan Stievermann, Birgit Weyel und Angelika Zirker. Münster: LIT, 2013. 59-84.
(with Angelika Zirker). "Sites of Death as Sites of Interaction in Donne and Shakespeare." Shakespeare, Donne, and the Cultural Imaginary. Ed. Judith H. Anderson and Jennifer Vaught. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013. 17-37.
"'A white paper': Anamnesis and the Character of the Child in Early Modern English Literature." Childhood in the English Renaissance. Ed. Anja Müller. Trier: WVT, 2013. 31-42.
"Die Entdeckung des Kindes in der englischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts." Sprache, Literatur, Kultur: Translatio delectat. Festschrift für Lothar Černý. Ed. Matthias Bauer, Rüdiger Pfeiffer-Rupp, Claudia Sasse and Ursula Wienen. Münster: LIT, 2012: 65-88.
"Eating Words: Some Notes on a Metaphor and its Use in Much Ado About Nothing." The Pleasures and Horrors of Eating: The Cultural History of Eating in Anglophone Literature. Ed. Marion Gymnich and Norbert Lennartz. Göttingen: Bonn UP, 2010: 45-58.
(with Joachim Knape, Peter Koch and Susanne Winkler). "Dimensionen der Ambiguität." Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 40.158 (Juni 2010): 7-75.
(with Markus Bauer, Sigrid Beck, Carmen Dörge, Burkhard von Eckartsberg, Michaela Meder, Katja Riedel, Janina Zimmermann and Angelika Zirker). "'The Two Coeval Come': Emily Dickinson and ambiguity." LiLi 40.158 (Juni 2010): 98-124.
"Bunyan and the Physiognomy of the Wor(l)d." Signergy. Ed. Jac Conradie, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2010. 193-210.
(with Joachim Knape, Peter Koch and Susanne Winkler). "Disarmed: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch über Ambiguität am Beispiel eines kausativen Verbs." Dimensionen der Zweisprachenforschung / Dimensions of Second Language Research: Festschrift für Kurt Kohn. Ed. Michaela Albl-Mikasa, Sabine Braun and Sylvia Kalina. Tübingen: Narr, 2009. 253-76.
(with Sigrid Beck). "Interpretation: Local Composition and Textual Meaning." Dimensionen der Zweisprachenforschung / Dimensions of Second Language Research: Festschrift für Kurt Kohn. Ed. Michaela Albl-Mikasa, Sabine Braun and Sylvia Kalina. Tübingen: Narr, 2009. 289-300.
"Rose Ausländers amerikanische Sprachwende." Neue Rundschau 119.1 (2008): 214-238.
"Trauma oder Rettung: Rose Ausländer und die englische Sprache." Blumenworte welkten: Entwürfe von Identität und Fremdheit in Rose Ausländers Lyrik. Ed. Jens Birkmeyer. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2008. 201-22.
"'A Word made Flesh': Anmerkungen zum lebendigen Wort bei Emily Dickinson." Bibeldichtung. Ed. Volker Kapp et al. Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 2006. 373-92.
"Rose Ausländer's American Poetry." Anglistentag 2002 Bayreuth: Proceedings. Ed. Ewald Mengel, Hans-Jörg Schmid and Michael Steppat. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2003. 49-59.
"'But the names remain': Dylan Thomas's Return Journey." Connotations 8.1 (1998/99): 93-111.
"Foreign Languages and Original Understanding in Little Dorrit." Dickens, Europe, and the New Worlds. Ed. Anny Sadrin. London: Macmillan, 1999. 155-68. [A shorter version published in The European English Messenger 6.2 (1997): 48-52.] Repr. in Global Dickens. Ed. John O. Jordan and Nirshan Perera. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. 283-96.
"The Language of Dogs: Mythos and Logos in Emily Dickinson." Connotations 5.2-3 (1995/96): 208-27.
"'A title strange, yet true': Toward an Explanation of Herbert's Titles." George Herbert: Sacred and Profane. Ed. Helen Wilcox and Richard Todd. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1995. 103-17.
"Orpheus and the Shades: The Myth of the Poet in David Copperfield." University of Toronto Quarterly 63 (1993/94): 308-27.
[Co-author:] Inge Leimberg et al. "Annotating Baroque Poetry: George Herbert's 'A Dialogue-Antheme.'" The George Herbert Journal 15.1 (1991): 49-67.
"Count Malvolio, Machevill and Vice." Connotations 1.3 (1991): 224-43
Miscellaneous
(with Sarah Briest, Sara Rogalski, and Angelika Zirker). "Englands Helicon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 October 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39342, accessed 14 October 2021.]
(with Angelika Zirker). "Introduction: Dimensions of Iconicity." Dimensions of Iconicity. Ed. Angelika Zirker, Matthias Bauer, Olga Fischer, und Christina Ljungberg. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2017. xi-xiv.
"Auferstehung." Handbuch Literatur und Religion. Ed. Daniel Weidner. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2016. 223-26.
"Vorwort." Heilige Texte: Literarisierung von Religion und Sakralisierung von Literatur im modernen Roman. Ed. Klaus Antoni, Matthias Bauer, Jan Stievermann, Birgit Weyel and Angelika Zirker. Münster: LIT, 2013. ix-xv.
"Roads Not Taken." Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 18.1-3 (2008/2009): 1-5.
"John Lyly." Metzler Lexikon englischsprachiger Autoren. Ed. Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2002. 361-362.
"Ambiguität," "Anagramm," "Bedeutung," "Denotation," "Spiel." Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie. Ed. Ansgar Nünning. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1998. 12, 13, 41, 88-89, 495-96.
"A Note in Reply to Alastair Fowler." Connotations 2.3 (1992): 271-74. [On Twelfth Night]
"Godwin, William." Harenbergs Lexikon der Weltliteratur. Vol. 2. Dortmund: Harenberg, 1989. 1128.