Mark Ilsemann
Adjunct Lecturer
Degrees
Ph.D. Princeton University, 2011
M.A. Princeton University, 2000
Interests
Mark Ilsemann, a native of Hamburg, has been a lecturer at UVA for the past six years. Aside from teaching various language courses, he has offered seminars on topics such as “Dreams and Fairy Tales,” “Madness and Melancholy in German Romanticism,” and “The Secret Life of Things.” He has recently finished his dissertation for Princeton University on the rhetoric of natural history in German Romanticism. While he feels most at home in the Classic and Romantic eras, he is also interested in contemporary authors such as Durs Grünbein and W.G. Sebald and in the history of literary theory. Before coming to Charlottesville, he attended a number of schools, among them the Free University of Berlin, Johns Hopkins University, and Princeton University. He writes some poetry in his spare time.
Recent Courses
- GERM 3010: Introduction to Literature, fall 2011
- GERM 3590: German Drama and Film, fall 2011
- GERM 3220: German Stage Production, spring 2011
- GERM 3620: Novelle, spring 2011
- GERM 3240: Advanced Composition and Conversation, spring 2011
- GERM 368: Postwar Literature, fall 2009
- GERM 205: The German Express (accelerated language course), fall 2008 & fall 2009
- GERM 201: Intermediate German Language, spring 2009
- GETR 362: Dreams and Fairy Tales, spring 2007 & spring 2008 & spring 2009 (taught in English)
- GERM 336: Readings in Contemporary German Culture, spring 2007
- GETR 348: German Literature After 1945, fall 2006 (taught in English)
- GERM 331: The Secret Life of Things, fall 2006
- GERM 356: Madness and Melancholy in German Romanticism, spring 2006
- GERM 323: Composition and Conversation, spring 2006
- GERM 102: Beginners’ German Language, spring 2006 & spring 2008
- GERM 202: Intermediate German Language, spring 2005
Recent Publications
“Nach dem Sturm und andere Gedichte.” Trans-Lit2 XIII/1 (spring 2007). 49-51.
“Going Astray: Melancholy, Natural History, and the Image of Exile in W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz.” W.G. Sebald: History– Memory – Trauma. Eds. Scott Denham and Mark R. McCulloh. Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 2006. 301-314.