McKnight Hall
Room 12
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400
Education
PhD Carolina-Duke German Studies, 2017
BA University of Pennsylvania, 2008
Academic Focus
Modernism, Austrian Literature, Science and Literature, Ecocriticism
Richard “Tres” Lambert earned his PhD from the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies in 2017. His research and teaching interests include ecocriticism, Austrian literature, philosophies of language, science and literature, Modernism, and poetic Realism.
Prof. Lambert is an active and engaged proponent of study abroad. He has studied at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Vienna, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. He also won grants from DAAD, the Austrian Cultural Fund in New York, the OeAD and the Austrian Fulbright Commission. In Vienna, Prof. Lambert also maintains his status as a Resident Fellow at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Geschichte und Gesellschaft located in the Hofburg.
Recent Publications
“Veza Canetti’s Die gelbe Straße: (In-)Visible Women and Red Vienna’s Literary Scene,” in Österreich-Studien im 21. Jahrhundert. Eine interdisziplinäre Festschrift der Austrian Studies Association. Bd. 1. Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Slawomir Piontek and Helga Schreckenberger, eds., University of Vienna Press, 2023, forthcoming (Winter 2023-Spring 2024).
“Overcoming Assimilation: Jewishness and the Inheritance of Modernism in Hermann Broch’s ‘Hofmannsthal und seine Zeit.’” Monatshefte,115:4 (Winter 2023), forthcoming.
“‘Stars in the Water’: Hermann Broch’s Die Unbekannte Größe and the Language of Interwar Experience.” Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 59:3 (2023).
With Steve Gimbel, “Bild-ing Science: The Multiplicity of Bild-Types in Boltzmann,” in Foundations of Science (2023). Online. DOI: 10.1007/s10699-023-09914-z.
“A Film in Words: Felix Dörmann’s Search for Cinematic Writing” in Journal of Austrian Studies, 54:2 (2021), 97-118. Winner of the Journal of Austrian Studies Max Kade Prize for Best Article of 2021
Courses Taught
This course examines the long tradition of dogs in literature and film from Greek antiquity through Wes Anderson. Using these works to guide our inquiry, we will explore the profound human connection to our canine companions. Class discussions will revolve around the following questions: Why are the stories of dogs and humans so intertwined? What can dogs teach us about ourselves? And what is it like to see the world through the eyes of a dog? Beyond the thematic focus of this course, we will also develop strategies for thinking, speaking and writing critically about diverse media, ranging from popular films to epic poetry.
Essentials of grammar, composition, pronunciation. Course includes oral and written work, readings, and use of cultural materials. Intended for students with no previous knowledge of German. Students may not receive credit for 101 and 103.
Essentials of grammar, composition, pronunciation. Course includes oral and written work, readings, and use of cultural materials. Prerequisite: German 101 or permission of instructor. Prepares for German 201. Students may not receive credit for 102 and 104.
Review of grammar from either the 101/102 or 103/104 sequence with added complexities of structure and syntax. Progressively more challenging texts introduce German culture. Intended for students who have completed either 102 or 104, or who place into 201 through achievement on the language placement exam.
Continuation of German 201. Progressively more complex texts introduce different aspects of German culture. Prerequisite: German 201 or permission of the instructor. Prepares for German 301.
Examines the concept of German Studies as a branch of Cultural Studies. A critical theory seminar that trains students in the analysis of texts from different disciplines and helps to develop a critical vocabulary for scholarly reflection. Aims to develop an awareness and understanding of the manifold linguistic and cultural contexts that have contributed to the body of theory at our disposal in studying culture, and German culture in particular. Conducted in English. Open to all students, but required for all German majors. As a foundational course, it should be taken as early as possible along the major track. Offered every other fall semester (in odd years: 2019, 2021 etc)
What is the real world, and how do we know it? What are the mysterious forces that hold our lives together? In its search for answers, this course delves into the dark and fantastic world of German realist literature. Here, we encounter a tangled web of shadowy powers that threaten to shape and reshape our understandings of the environment, of society, and of those around us. Can you handle the truth? Readings and discussion in English.
Art, Science, “Truth”… This course traces the relationship of science and literature within social discourses since the Enlightenment. Module 1 examines literary works that draw inspiration from scientific breakthroughs—biology, astronomy, geology—to produce texts whose truths invoke the natural world. Module 2 examines art and literature’s antagonism of science through films and texts critical of physics, astronomy, and animatronics. Module 3 examines science fiction as either science, fiction, or a new hybrid. Conversations explore evolving attitudes and anxieties towards science and technology that continue to shape our world.
Germany and beer go hand-in-hand. But what role do fermentation, experimentation, and intoxication play in the history of Germanic culture, literature, and film? In this course, we investigate the interrelationships between scientific and aesthetic “cultures". We also consider fermentation, experimentation, and intoxication as concepts for understanding German-language culture, literature, and film by asking: Are fermentation and experimentation models for art? Does intoxication inspire creativity? Can withdrawal explain the concerns of today’s capitalist societies, and particularly post-WWII Germany’s? All readings in English.
From the forests of Grimm’s fairy tales to the wasteland of Netflix’s Dark, the environment is deeply seeded in the German imagination. Examines the roots of Germany’s fascinations with nature and ecology and unearth the cultural aspirations and anxieties they cultivate. Branches into political histories for the seismic shifts that have reshaped Europe: ecological fantasies stemming from National Socialism and the successes budding from the Green Germany movement. Taught in English.
Continuation of the work of German 201, 202. Designed for advanced work in language and intended for students who have successfully completed German 202 or its equivalent. 301 and 302 offers the opportunity to increase sophistication of written and spoken German in a variety of contexts. Students write professional letters, creative pieces, editorials, film reviews, etc. Media and popular culture provide insight into contemporary German life. Collaborative learning is encouraged; students read and edit each other's work.
Designed for advanced work in language and intended for students who have successfully completed German 301. 301 and 302 offer the opportunity to increase sophistication of written and spoken German in a variety of contexts. Students write professional letters, creative pieces, editorials, film reviews, etc. Media and popular culture provide insight into contemporary German life. Collaborative learning is encouraged; students read and edit each other's work.
Study of the cultural, social, economic, and political developments in postwar German from 1945 to the present. Extensive use of critical/analytical readings, memoirs, literature, film, newspapers/magazines, and German television. Conducted in German, with additional language practice integrated into the course. Recommended as a bridge course between advanced German language and other 300-level courses.
Splendor. Sex. Pressure. Art. This course explores these and other cultural themes that defined Viennese modernism. Discussions begin with the primary literary texts, including texts by Freud, Schnitzler, Musil, and Zweig. Subsequent units profile the adaptation and afterlife of these texts and crises through literary works and films. The final unit examines the fin-de-siècle in contemporary films, from India to Budapest, to reflect on the parallels between Vienna’s past and our global existence in the 21st Century. Conducted in German. Prerequisite: GER 302 or equivalent.
Capstone course for German majors. Intensive study of selected aspects of German culture. Students begin working with instructor at the end of their Junior year to choose individual senior thesis topics. The course culminates in a written thesis and public presentation of the thesis. Conducted in German.