Wilhelm Vosskamp, born in Osnabrück, Germany, in 1936. Ph.D. from the University of Kiel. Professor of German Literature at the University of Cologne.
Fellow (1 September 1995 – 30 June 1996)
During the NIAS year 1995/96 I worked on my book on the German Bildungsroman in the context of the history of the modern European novel. The main purpose is to analyse the function of the typical German novel of education within the history of mentalities, beginning in the late 18th century until the situation after the second world war. I finished three chapters (the book will probably have five): an introduction on the definition and genre problems of the Bildungsroman around 1800 within the discussions on the concept of Bildung; a chapter on problems of disillusioning the Bildung in the middle of the 19th century (Gottfried Keller) and a final chapter on the critique and deconstructing of the Bildungsroman in the 20th century (Thomas Bernhard).
In addition to my working on the book I wrote three articles on theoretical problems of Cultural Studies: “Literary criticism and cultural studies”; “‘Menschenwissenschaft’. The theory of civilisation by Norbert Elias”; “Culture and media”.