Wolfgang Weiß (English studies)

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Wolfgang Weiß , also known as Wolfgang Weiss, (born February 20, 1932 - † July 11, 2019 ) was a German Anglist . He was a well-known Shakespeare scholar.

Life

Wolfgang Weiß was born in Munich as the son of a Bavarian forest man and an Allgäu woman in Munich, where he also spent most of his childhood and youth. Weiss passed his Abitur at the humanistic Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich and initially studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich until he successfully completed his intermediate diploma. Weiss then changed his course of study and began studying English, French and Celtic philology at the Ludwig Maximilians University .

After successfully completing his studies, Weiss worked at the University of Glasgow from 1960 to 1962 , returned to the Ludwig Maximilians University and became a research assistant to the renowned Shakespeare researcher Wolfgang Clemen .

In 1964, Weiss became a Dr. phil. PhD . Four years later he was appointed managing curator of the Munich English seminar, which for him, however, involved increased administrative activity. In 1970 he became a full professor at the University of Cologne , before he was offered a call back to his home university in Bavaria in 1974.

Until his retirement in 2000, Wolfgang Weiß researched and taught there as holder of the chair for Shakespeare and the English literature of the early modern period and as head of the famous [[ Shakespeare Library | Shakespeare Research Library]]. With his extensive research and outstanding publications, he earned not only national but also international recognition as one of the leading Shakespeare experts of his time.

For Weiß, influenced by his academic teacher Wolfgang Clemen, the starting point of his literary work was a high degree of sensitivity, which marked his thorough analysis and interpretation of the texts in the sense of close reading, taking into account his profound knowledge of their historical background.

However, Weiss achieved great esteem not only for his research, but also for his teaching. In addition to his seminars and lectures, he organized regular visits to the productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company and stimulated lively discussions with actors, employees of the RSC and well-known British Shakespeare researchers, many of whom were close friends.

Weiss was editor of the Shakespeare yearbook for a long time , co-editor of the Information and Synthesis series and supported the establishment of postcolonial studies as part of Munich's English studies.

In addition to his specialist research and teaching activities, Weiss also endeavored outside the university to inspire people for literature and to give them access to works that, as evidence of times long past and forms of expression, prevent easy readability or simple understanding. With this didactic goal, for example, he published the paperback Das Studium der Englisch Literatur in 1979 , one of the first systematic introductions to the study of English studies, was committed to teacher training and also gave countless lectures to interested audiences who themselves had no specialist knowledge.

Wolfgang Weiß lived in Haid near Sandbach . After his retirement, Weiß continued to devote himself to his passions, which included Shakespeare and English literature as well as his Bavarian homeland. In his retirement, for example, he published monographs on King Lear and Shakespeare in Bavaria - and in Bavarian , which in turn broke new academic ground. In addition, he remained a committed member of the Bund Bairische Sprache e. V. and, as before, met regularly with groups of high school teachers during his active time at the university to discuss English literature with them.

He also maintained regular contact with his numerous specialist colleagues at home and abroad, especially with the Shakespeare expert and Bonn emeritus Dieter Mehl, who died in September 2018 . White and flour have been close friends since they both studied with Wolfgang Clemen and worked for him.

In 2003 Wolfgang Weiß received the culture award of the district of Passau for his special commitment . In 2008 he co-founded the Carossa room in the Vilshofen town hall.

Wolfgang Weiß died on July 11, 2019 in Munich.

Fonts (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituaries of Wolfgang Weiß , Süddeutsche Zeitung of August 3, 2019
  2. ↑ See the obituary by Uwe Meyer in the Anglistenverband, published online as a PDF file under [1] . Retrieved April 25, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME White, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Anglist
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1932
DATE OF DEATH 11th July 2019