Albrecht Classen

Prof. Dr. Albrecht Classen, July 2019

Albrecht Classen (born April 23, 1956 in Eitra near Bad Hersfeld ) is a German Medievalist , Germanist and cultural historian .

Live and act

Albrecht Classen studied from 1977 to 1982 at the Philipps University of Marburg , where he passed the state examination. He also studied before his state examination in Erlangen, the University of Millersville in Pennsylvania, the University of Salamanca and the University of Urbino. From 1982 he studied at the University of Oxford and from 1984 at the University of Virginia , with a doctorate (Ph.D.) 1986. He was 1986 Lecturer at the University of Virginia (Department of German Studies) and 1987 Assistant Professor, 1992 Associate Professor and 1994 Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson (since 2004 Distinguished Professor) and was visiting professor at numerous universities around the world.

Classen has published about Oswald von Wolkenstein , Wolframs von Eschenbach Titurel , autobiographical poetry of the late Middle Ages, German folk and song books, junk literature, sex and eros in the Middle Ages and the myth of the chastity belt , the forest in German literature of the Middle Ages and ecological topics ( Water in the Middle Ages), women's literature in the Middle Ages and prostitution in the literature of the Middle Ages. He is the editor of numerous edited volumes and anthologies on medieval and early modern cultural and literary history, including the three-volume Medieval Culture by De Gruyter in 2015 and the three-volume Handbook of Medieval Studies in 2010 , anthologies, among other things, on violence, love, friendship, age, childhood, urban and rural areas, spirituality and religion, magic and magicians, intercultural encounters, laughter in the Middle Ages and early modern times. He also published on the history of the German-speaking Jesuits in the southwestern United States.

Classen also published nine volumes of poetry, published many poems and prose texts in the magazine Trans-Lit 2 and wrote a satirical volume.

In 2016 he became a member of the PEN Center for German-Speaking Authors Abroad. In 2004 he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon. In 2007 he became an honorary citizen of Borsum (Harsum) . In 2012 he received the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Arizona Professor of the Year, and in 2016 NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising, Certificate of Merit (Faculty Advising Category). In 2016 he received a Festschrift, ed. by Werner Heinz, 2017 followed the accolade (Knighted as Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions). He was president of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association several times and president of the American Association of German Teachers in Arizona (AATG) for decades.

Since 2009 he has been the editor of Mediaevistik (co-editor since 1994), of Tristania since 1993 (discontinued in 2002) and of Humanities Open Access (online magazine) since 2012 .

With Marilyn Sandidge, he has edited the series Fundamentals of Medieval Culture and Literature at De Gruyter since 2006 , and most recently Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time (2019).

He has been married to Carolyn A. Classen (née Sugiyama) since 1984 and has a son Stephan M. Classen (* 1985) and a granddaughter Sophie (* 2018).

Fonts

Books

• On the reception of northern Italian culture of the Trecento in the work of Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376 / 77–1445), Göppinger Arbeit zur Germanistik 471, Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1987
• Utopia and logos. Four studies on Wolframs von Eschenbach "Titurel fragments, contributions to older literary history, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1990
• Autobiographical poetry of the European late Middle Ages. Studies on Hugo von Montfort, Oswald von Wolkenstein, Antonio Pucci, Charles d'Orléans, Thomas Hoccleve, Michel Beheim, Hans Rosenplüt and Alfonso Alvarez de Villasandino. Amsterdam Publications on Language and Literature 91, Amsterdam, Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 1991
• The German Volksbuch. A Critical History of a Late-Medieval Genre, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995, 1999
• German song books of the 15th and 16th centuries, Volksliedstudien 1, Münster: Waxmann, 2001
• 'My soul begins to sing'. Religious women's songs from the 15th to 16th centuries Century. Critical studies and text edition, Studies in Spirituality Supplements 6, Leuven: Peeters 2002
• Despair and hope. The search for the communicative community in German medieval literature, Supplements to Mediaevistik 1, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2002
• The love and marriage discourse from the high Middle Ages to the early 17th century. Folksong Studies 5, Münster: Waxmann 2005
• The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process, New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2007
• The Power of a Woman's Voice in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007
• German Schwankliteratur of the 16th century: Studies on Martin Montanus, Hans Wilhelm Kirchhof and Michael Lindener, Koblenz-Landauer studies on humanities, cultural and educational sciences, 4, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag 2009
• with Lukas Richter: Song and songbook in the early modern times, folk song studies 10, Münster: Waxmann 2010
• Sex in the Middle Ages, Badenweiler: Bachmann 2011
• Sexual Violence and Rape in the Middle Ages. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture 7, Berlin and New York: De Gruyter 2011
• Early History of the Southwest through the Eyes of German-Speaking Jesuit Missionaries: A Transcultural Experience in the Eighteenth Century, Lanham, MA: Lexington Books, 2013
• Love, Life, and Lust in Heinrich Kaufringer's Verse Narratives, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 467. MRTS Texts for Teaching, 9, Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014
• The Forest in Medieval German Literature: Ecocritical Readings from a Historical Perspective, Ecocritical Theory and Practice, Lanham, MA: Lexington Books, 2015
• Reading Medieval European Women Writers: Strong Literary Witnesses from the Past, Frankfurt, Peter Lang 2016
• Water in Medieval Literature: An Ecocritical Reading, Lanham, MA: Lexington Books 2017
• Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature, Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture 8, New York: Routledge 2018
• Prostitution in Medieval Literature, Lanham, MA: Lexington Books 2019

As editor (selection)

• Handbook of Medieval Studies: Terms, Methods, Trends, 3 volumes, De Gruyter 2010
• Medieval Culture: A Handbook. Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages, 3 volumes, Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2015
• East Meets West in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time, Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture 14, De Gruyter 2013
• Paradigm Shift in the Middle Ages, Brepols 2019

In 1992 he edited the story of Moriz von Craûn for Reclam , Tristan as a monk in 1994 , Diu Klage (Nibelungenlied) in 1997 , May and Beaflor in 2006 and the English translation of Oswald von Wolkenstein's poems in 2008 , followed by an English translation by Rudolfs von Ems Der guote Gêrhart 2016.

Web links

• Literature by and about Albrecht Classen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website at the University of Arizona
• Website in the Department of German Studies , University of Arizona

Individual evidence

1. ↑ American satires, Leipzig, Engelsdorfer Verlag 2018
2. ↑ The Poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein: An English Translation of the Complete Works (1376 / 77-1445), Palgrave Macmillan 2008