Ulf Abraham

Ulf Abraham (2011)

Ulf Abraham (born April 5, 1954 in Nuremberg ) is a German German studies specialist and didactic specialist in German.

Life

Abraham attended elementary school in Nuremberg and the high school for boys in Ansbach . From 1975 to 1980 he studied German and English philology at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg , where he passed the first state examination for teaching at grammar schools in 1980 . As a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation , he then did his doctorate with Gerhard Neumann in Erlangen and Freiburg im Breisgau . He finished his doctoral studies in 1983 with a thesis on Franz Kafka ( The interrogated hero. Interrogations, judgments and the speech of law and guilt in Kafka's work , published in 1985) and received the highest distinction ( summa cum laude ) for it. From 1983 to 1985 he was a clerk at the Hardenberg-Gymnasium Fürth and on Dietrich Bonhoeffer -Gymnasium Oberasbach and taught from 1985 to 1989 as a teacher at Celtis-Gymnasium in Schweinfurt .

From 1989 onwards he pursued his scientific career at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg as an assistant to Ortwin Beisbart and completed his habilitation there in 1994 with the font StilGestalten. History and systematics of the talk of style in German didactics . After assuming a substitute professorship for German didactics at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg in 1995, he was appointed to the chair there in 1997. In 2002 he turned down a further offer to the Free University of Berlin . In 2004 he was visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta , USA . In 2005 he accepted a call back as a professor at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg. Upon invitation, he accepted another guest professorship at the Competence Center for German Didactics at the University of Klagenfurt in 2009 . Ulf Abraham will be released from his duties at the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg in April 2020.

Act

Ulf Abraham can be described as one of the last generalists in German didactics because he researched almost all essential fields of competence and developed them through relevant publications. He has the writing didactics with the ribbon Lesarten-Schreibarten ( resulting from the habilitation) . Forms of reproduction and review of literary texts (1994) given new impetus. He subjected traditional school texts such as the table of contents or the interpretation essay to criticism. As alternatives or variants, he suggested the Précis or the creation of stylistic variety shows (based on the style exercises of Raymond Queneau ). Time and again he also campaigned for creative writing in German classes. He succeeded convincingly insofar as he occasionally wrote and published literary texts himself.

To sustain school-based writing into closer contact with extracurricular practices, he developed together with Ina Brendel Perpiña and Erwin Krottenthaler a training model that teachers and writers / authors in writing workshops brought together (cf.. Literary Writing in German lessons. Production-oriented literature pedagogy in education and training , 2015).

In transitions. Literature, socialization and literary learning. (1998), using numerous texts for children, adolescents and adults, he followed the path to extracurricular and school literary education. Similar to the transition objects described by Donald Winnicott , books can also promote psychosocial developments in readers, according to Abraham.

Much of the knowledge gained here can be found in the standard work on literary didactics written together with Matthis Kepser . An introduction . flowed in. Literature didactics is conceived here as an independent scientific sub-discipline based on cultural studies, sociological, anthropological and media history. An empirically founded competence orientation is by no means rejected, but is declared to be in need of supplementation. First published in 2006, the fourth, completely revised and expanded edition has been available since 2016.

The mostly neglected competence area of oral language use is the publication speaking as reflexive practice. Oral use of language in a competence-oriented German lesson (2008; 2nd, updated and expanded edition, 2016). Here all essential sub-competencies such as storytelling , informing, acting, speaking and presenting are dealt with systematically .

The book Films in German Lessons (2008, 4th updated edition 2018), which is dedicated to long-neglected film education in schools , also met with great interest in German didactic theory and practice . Bringing images and texts together is also the aim of the volume Bild und Text im Lehr, published together with Hubert Sowa . Basics, learning scenarios, practical examples from 2016.

Abraham's work in German didactics is only briefly outlined: since 2002 he has been co-editor and author of the specialist journal Praxis Deutsch published by Friedrich Verlag . As an author for other magazines and (co-) editor of numerous anthologies, he has had a lasting impact on German teaching in theory and practice in over 190 other essays and articles. He has also been involved in the scientific association Symposion Deutschdidaktik eV for many years, of which he was chairman from 2008 to 2012. In 2014, Ulf Abraham was awarded the Friedrich Prize, the most important award in German didactics, for his academic achievements.

Works (selection)

• The questioned hero. Interrogations, judgments and the talk of law and guilt in the work of Franz Kafka. Fink, Munich 1985.
• Reading types - writing types. Forms of reproduction and discussion of literary texts. Klett, Stuttgart 1994.
• S tilGestalten: history and nomenclature of talk of style in the German didactics. Theoretical foundations, didactic problems, methodological perspectives. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1996.
• Transitions. Literature, socialization and literary learning. West German Publishing House, Wiesbaden 1998.
• with Matthis Kepser : Literature Didactics German. An introduction. 4. completely rework. u. exp. Ed. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2016.
• Speaking as a reflective practice. Oral use of language in a competence-oriented German class. Fillibach, Freiburg i.Br. 2008.
• Films in German class . 4th, again updated edition. Klett / Kallmeyer, Velber 2018.
• Fantastic in literature and film. An introduction for schools and universities. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2012.
• with Ina Brendel-Perpina : Literary writing in German lessons. Production-oriented literary education in education and training. Klett / Kallmeyer, Velber 2015.
• with Hubert Sowa : pictures and text in class. Basics, learning scenarios, practical examples. Klett / Kallmeyer, Velber 2016.

Web links

• Homepage on the website of the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulf Abraham: "Creative" and "poetic" writing. In: Feilke, Helmuth / Pohl, Thorsten (Hrsg.): Written language use - writing texts. German Lessons in Theory and Practice Vol. 4. Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2014, p. 364-381 .
2. ↑ Cf. last about Ulf Abraham: Gute Werke. In: Cumart, Nevfel (ed.): In the winter of time. Literature from Franconia. Anthology . Roth: edition hüscher in Genniges Verlag 2017, pp. 13–20. Ulf Abraham is a member of the New Society for Literature Erlangen eV [1] .
3. ↑ University of Bamberg Press Office: Science & Practice. Literary writing in German lessons Bamberg's didacticians develop advanced training programs for the Stuttgart Literature House. University of Bamberg, April 1, 2014, accessed on April 28, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Practice German. Magazine for German lessons. Retrieved May 2, 2019 . 
5. ↑ The Friedrich Prize. Erhard Friedrich Foundation, accessed on April 28, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Freya Ebner: An influential generalist in his field Ulf Abraham was awarded the Friedrich Prize for German Didactics. University of Bamberg, September 9, 2014, accessed on April 28, 2019 .