Nathan Taylor

Some recent german fiction recs: Heike geisler seasonal associate for warehouse capitalism
Out of The sugar factory by Dorothee Elmiger for something like long arc empire-to-logistics capitalism (dissolves novel form pretty much)

upcoming talk previewing my book on how German literature finds itself entangled in the long arc of maritime and colonial logistics between Europe and the Caribbean - excited to be in Madison!
gns.wisc.edu/event/fugiti...

Kulturtechnik-studies reaches new heights!

I have a big new essay out that argues that Erich Auerbach is the crucial figure for historicist reading in lit studies today + argues that the epistemology of such reading depends on the profoundly humanist criterion "sufficient passion" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Bridled, Bound, and Beaten. Critical Theory’s Rhythm Problem This essay approaches the instable boundaries between verse and prose by examining the revival of rhythm in literary and critical theory as a figure that encompasses both bound or unbound aesthetic forms and social states of bondage or liberation. The essay examines...

Some great pieces in this book on a perennial issue in lit studies: What distinguishes a line of verse from a line of prose? I think in part it's the historical semantics of the 'beat' / the 'bonds' of poetic verse, which find their way into critical theory on power & rhythm. doi.org/10.1007/978-...

At some point, theorists of culture industry began to see rhythm as tool of domination, leading to some infamous misprisions about syncopated jazz. I wrote about why they came to link rhythm to the social violence of coercion - and how it began with a footnote on a cardiac episode in the Odyssey.

Defending the Possibility of the University: A Roundtable on “University Keywords” - Public Books “What would it look like for faculty unions and graduate student unions to collaborate or work together with K-12 teachers’ unions to push back against anti-DEI legislation or book bans?”

“I don’t understand why so many people have conceded that the university is a left space. Can someone show me a Marxist university president?”

Habe immer das Gefühl, deutsche Academia ist zugleich Butlers wahrste aber ihnen ggü abgeneigste Publikum - bin gespannt auf die Essays!

Nathan Taylor–Literature isn’t Invaluable—But It Can be Redundant This article is part of the b2o: an online journal special issue “The Question of Literary Value”, edited by Alexander Dunst and Pieter Vermeulen. Literature isn’t Invaluable—But It Can be Redundant N...

Some thoughts on literary value, redundancy, and residual effects of German romanticism (with thanks to the fantastic editors!) in a great dossier at b2o - check out the other essays as well!
www.boundary2.org/2025/12/nath...

❗️AM FZHG❗️

HEUTE, Book-Talk mit Florian Sprenger: "Von hier aus sprechen, zu Ihnen. Florian Sprenger spricht über sein Buch 'Ich-Sagen: Eine Genealogie der Situiertheit' (August Verlag, 2025)."

🗓️&📍26.11., 18 Uhr, Campus Westend, IG 1.314 (Eisenhower-Saal)

Time to come to Frankfurt now and put a face to the profile for a German audience!

I was in that seminar, which was great. Time to dig back up the syllabus!

❗️AT THE FZHG❗️

TODAY, our first #Mittwochskonferenz of the summer semester with Jonathan Culler (Cornell University): "Sound and Rhythm in Contemporary American Poetry".

🗓️&📍30.04., 6 p.m., Campus Westend, CAS 1.812

I learned immense amounts from Joshua since walking into his capital poetics seminar in 2010. Such a crushing loss. He'd likely console us with di Prima: 'we die/a million times a day... get up, put on your shoes, get/ started, someone will finish'- and then point out the line remains unpunctuated.