Prof. Dr. Robert Kirstein

Paulinus Nolanus, Carmen 17. Text, Einleitung und Kommentar, Basel 2000: Schwabe (= Diss.)

Junge Hirten und alte Fischer. Die Gedichte 27, 20 und 21 des Corpus Theocriteum, Berlin 2007: De Gruyter (Texte und Kommentare Vol. 29)

Series

Brill's Narratological Commentaries on Ancient Texts (ed. by Robert Kirstein & Irene F. De Jong; Leiden: Brill) Link

Roma aeterna. Beiträge zu Spätantike und Frühmittelalter (Stuttgart: Steiner) Link

IConiC. Innovative Contributions in Classics (editorial board; Turnhout: Brepols) Link

Spudasmata. Studien zur klassischen Philologie und ihren Grenzgebieten (editorial board; Hildesheim: Olms) Link

Volumes

Ambiguity & Narratology. Interdisciplinary and Diachronic Perspectives. Ed. by Simon Grund, Robert Kirstein, and Julian Wagner (= Narratologia 92). Berlin: de Gruyter.

Colloquium Rauricum XVIII: Recht als Erzählung. Narratologie und Recht von der Antike bis in die Gegenwart – Narratology and Law from Antiquity to the Present Age. Ed. by Robert Kirstein and Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, Basel: Schwabe & Co.

Der geniale Wildling. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff und Max Fränkel. Briefwechsel 1874–1878. 1900. Ed. mit Kommentar von W. M. Calder III und R. Kirstein, Nachrichten der Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philologisch-historische Klasse 1999, Nr. 5.

Aus dem Freund ein Sohn. Theodor Mommsen und Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. Briefwechsel, 1872–1903. Herausgegeben und kommentiert von W. M. Calder III und R. Kirstein, 2 Bde, 2003 (Weidmann). Info

In Pursuit of Wissenschaft. Festschrift W. M. Calder III zum 75. Geburtstag. Ed. by S. Heilen, R. Kirstein, R. S. Smith, S. Trzaskoma, M. Vorwerk, R. van der Wal, Hildesheim 2008

Wissenstransfer und Translation. Zur Breite und Tiefe des Übersetzungsbegriffs. Ed. by A. Gil and R. Kirstein, 2015 (Hermeneutik und Kreativität, Vol. 3), Info.

2023 

• Discourse Traditions and Literary Studies. The Example of Ancient Greek and Latin Literature(s), in: Manual of Discourse Traditions in Romance. Ed. by Esme Winter-Froemel and Álvaro S. Octavio de Toledo y Huerta (Manuals of Romance Linguistics), Berlin: de Gruyter [2022] , 739-750.
• Balance and Excess in Ovid’s Pygmalion-Story, in: The Reception of Ancient Cyprus in Western Culture. Ed. by Spyridon Tzounakas, Stella Alekou, Stephen Harrison (Trends in Classics Suppl. Vol. 139), Berlin: de Gruyter, 87-102.
• Unreliable Narration in Antiquity, in: Handbook of Diachronic Narratology. Ed. by Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid, Berlin: de Gruyter, 84-104.
• Mikronarrativik und Multiperspektivität in Suetons Vitae Caesarum, in: Suétone narrateur. Biographie und Erzählung in De vita Caesarum. Ed. by Eduardo Galfré and Christoph Schubert (Millenium Studies, Vol. 106), Berlin: de Gruyter, 163-181.

2024

• Foreword: ‘Why Ambiguity and Narratology?’: Ambiguity and Narratology – Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Diachronic Case Studies. Ed. by Simon Grund, Robert Kirstein, and Julian Wagner, Berlin: de Gruyter (Narratologia, Vol. 92), 3-6.
• ‘If anyone among this people …’ – Ambiguity and Multiple Addressing in Latin Literature (Plautus, Catullus, Ovid, Thomas Morus) (with Simon Grund): Ambiguity and Narratology – Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Diachronic Case Studies. Ed. by Simon Grund, Robert Kirstein, and Julian Wagner, Berlin: de Gruyter (Narratologia, Vol. 92), 239-272.

Latin Literature of the Hellenistic and Roman Age

Late antiquity

Narratology, Narratology of Space

Literary and Cultural Theory

Hellenistic & Bucolic Poetry 

Ovid

Working Group Narrative Dynamics in Latin Literature (link)

Research Training Group (RTG) 1808 Ambiguity — Production and Perception (link) (until 2022)

PhD-Network Theory of Balance. Forms and Figures of Equilibrium in Media, Arts and Literature (link) (until 2021)

For upcoming conferences and lectures click here.

My teaching is mainly in the areas of Roman literature and culture, reaching from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity. Courses include core authors such as Cicero and Catullus, Virgil and Ovid, Petronius and Seneca, Martial and Pliny, Suetonius and Tacitus, and Augustine. In addition I teach a number of classes on Narratology and Literary theory (Spaces and Borders in Literatur, Small Literary, Paratexts and other texts 'around the texts'), on Roman thought and society (Ancient Love Poetry, War and Violence, Friendship, Literature and Power), and the Reception of Classical Literature in the 18th to 20th century (Goethe and Schiller, Freud, Nietzsche, Weber). Some of these courses are held in interdisciplinary cooperation with colleagues from other disciplines, and in contribution to the MPhil program "Literatur- und Kulturtheorie”. 

Habilitations

Andreas Abele: Reading Symmachus’ Letter Collection by the Book. Literarästhetische, narratologische und historische Studien zur Briefsammlung des Symmachus.

Hans-Peter Nill: Dinge als Aktanten. Untersuchungen zur Narrativität von Dingen und Objekten in der lateinischen Literatur.

Dissertations

Christian Hild: Liebesgedichte als Wagnis – Emotionen und generationelle Prozesse in Catulls Lesbia-Gedichten (published 2013)

Hans-Peter Nill: Gewalt/Unmaking in Lucans Bellum Civile (published 2018 in the Series 'Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology‘ Vol. 27).

Elisabeth-Marianne Schedel: Ambiguities of War. Studies in the Narrativity of Silius Italicus’ Punica (published 2022 in the Series 'Brills Narratological Commentaries on Ancient Texts'). The project was part of the Research Training Group 1808: "Ambiguity - Production and Perception"

Aurelia Gumz: Writing and Doing amicitia: Literarische Konstruktion von Freundschaft im Briefwechsel zwischen Plinius und Trajan. (working title)

Simon Grund: Exzess ohne Boden – Balance und Ambiguität in Ovids Tristien (finished 07/2023). The project was part of the  Network "Theories of Balance. Forms and Figures of Equilibrium in Media, Literature, and Arts" and the  Research Training Group 1808: "Ambiguity - Production and Perception"

Julian Wagner: Orphic Voice(s). A Narratological Commentary on Ovid, Metamorphoses Book 10. (finished 2023;  to be published in 2024 in the series 'Brills Narratological Commentaries on Ancient Texts'))

Katharina Stefaniw: Nicolaus Cusanus: Coniectura de ultimis diebus. Einleitung, Übersetzung, Kommentar.

Georgios Voulgaris: Intertext und Kleine Erzählungen. Studien zum römischen Epyllion

Elisabeth Scharkin: The Portrayal of Women by Roman Authors and its Influence on Today’s Society

Secondary Supervisions

Jutta Beck: Körperlichkeit und Rhetorik (Rhetorics); Katharina Blaas: Macht und Familie. Intergenerationelle Relationen in den Briefen des Q. Aurelius Symmachus (Classics); Berenike Jochim-Buhl: Lots Frau (Gen 19,1-29): Innerbiblische Intertextualität und Rezeptionsgeschichte (in Auswahl) unter Berücksichtigung von Genderfragen (Biblical Studies); Viola Palmieri: [Theocritus’] Idyll 25, Herakles leontophonos (Classics); Yuzhong Chen (MA Peking University): Ästhetik des Hexameters: Zur Vollendung des deutschen Hexameters an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert bei Goethe, Schiller und Hölderlin (Germanic Literature; published 2020); Isa Gundlach: Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps. Poetologische Bildersprache in der Dichtung der augusteischen Zeit (Classics; published 2019); Alexandra Mehl: Künstlerfiguren in der antiken lateinischen Literatur (Classics; published 2020)

Program International Literatures (IL, Tuebingen) Link

Forum Spätantike (Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Spätantike-Forschungen, Tuebingen) Link

Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI Berlin)

Member and Tutor of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation / Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (Bonn)

Mommsen-Gesellschaft

German Society of Humboldtians / Deutsche Gesellschaft der Humboldtianer (Tuebingen)

Deutscher Altphilologen-Verband (DAV, Berlin)

International Ovidian Society (IOS)

Görres-Gesellschaft zur Pflege der Wissenschaft (Bonn)

European Narratology Network (Ghent)

Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie (GanPh)

Carmela Cioffi, PhD (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa), November 2014 – February 2015

Sarah Diaco (University of Cambridge, Faculty of Classics, UK), September 2016 – April 2017

Aniek van den Eersten (Universität Amsterdam), September 2017

Hannah Sorscher (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), 2021 – 2022 (Teach@Tübingen-Fellowship)

Gerjanne van den Berg (St. Adrews), 2023 – 2024 (Teach@Tübingen-Fellowship)