Academics
Richard Fisher
Associate Professor
Modern Languages and Literatures; Classical Studies
Phone 847-735-5284
E-mail fisher@lakeforest.edu
Web http://campus.lakeforest.edu/fisher
Specialization
German Literature
18-20 C. Comparative Literature
Classical Studies
Interests
Comparative Literature
German Literature
Ancient Greek Literature & Culture
Archaeology and History
Cosmology
Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago
M.A., University of Chicago
B.A., University of Chicago
Courses Taught
Senior Comparative Literature Symposium (“Senior Symposium”)
Heroism: Tragedy and Transgression (Sophomore Honors Seminar)
European Drama (First Year Studies)
The World of Ancient Greece (First Year Studies)
Cultivating Ancient Worlds (First Year Studies)
“Ways of Knowing” (Richter Scholar Honors seminar)
Introduction to Communications
German 210-12: Advanced Intermediate German
German Conversation & Composition
Advanced German Grammar
Reading German for Research
Goethe Before Weimar
Goethe's Faust, Parts I and II
Goethe's Concept of “Bildung”
Goethe's Novels
The 18th century German Novel
Winckelmann: Germans and Greeks
Künstlernovellen des 19. Jahrhunderts
Interpretationsübungen lyrischer Texte
Lessing, Goethe, Schiller
Introduction to German Literature
Ideas of Nature in German Thought and Literature
“Naturphilosophie” und Prosa der Naturwissenschaften
Modern German Theater
Modern German Film
Classical Studies: Greek Civilization 201
Greek Greats: Epic, History, Drama
Cultivating Ancient Worlds: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece
Books
Ethik und Aesthetik. Werke und Werte in der Literatur des 18. bis zum 20. Jahrhunderts. Festschrift für Wolfgang Wittkowski (Modern German Literature, 18-20C.)
Articles
Popular
“Gleanings from the Glass” (“Focal Point” essay), Sky & Telescope, November 2003.
Scholarly
“Credo in Context: Justice, Order and Goethe's Table of Values in Belagerung von Mainz,” Seminar (1995), pp. 129–144.
“Goethe’s Winckelmannbild and the Idea of Classicism,” in Ethik und Ästhetik. Werke und Werte in der Literatur des 18. bis zum 20. Jahrhunderts. Festschrift für Wolfgang Wittkowski zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. R. Fisher (Peter Lang: Bern, Frankfurt am Main, 1995), pp. 296–321.
“The Function of Concept Formation in the German Review Journal,” in The Eighteenth-Century German Book Review, ed. H. Rowland, K. Fink (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1993), pp. 96–113.
“Ein Repräsentant seines Jahrhunderts: A Portrait of the Artist in Goethe's Anhang to the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini,” Michigan Germanic Studies (Fall 1988), pp. 85–106.
“Dichter and Geschichte: Goethe's Campagne in Frankreich,” Goethe Society of North America Yearbook 4 (1987), pp. 235–274.
Reviews
Goethe im Urteil seiner Kritiker, Karl Mandelkow. German Quarterly (in German, 1994).
Goethe on War: Representation and Assessment, Edward Larkin. Scholarly Journal and Review (Edwin Mellon, 1992).
Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre und der Roman des Nebeneinander, Waltraud Maierhofer. German Quarterly (in German, 1993).
Zu Goethes Erzählweise versteckter Bezüge in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder die Entsagenden, Markus Zenker. German Quarterly (in German, 1993).
August von Kotzebue: The Drama, the Man, Oscar Mandel. Eighteenth-Century Studies (Vol. 25, No. 3, Spring 1992).
Zwischen Aufklärung und Restoration: Festschrift für Wolfgang Martens, Wolfgang Frühwald und Alberto Martino, eds. German Studies Review (Vol. XIII/3, Oct. 1990).
Aus meinem Leben, Alexander von Humboldt. German Quarterly (Vol. 63, 3/4, 1990).
Goethe und die Französische Revolution. Insel-Almanach auf das Jahr 1989, ed. Karl Otto Conrady. German Quarterly (Vol. 63, 3/4, 1990).
Autoren und Wissenschaftler im 18. Jahrhundert, Wolf Lepenies. Lessing Yearbook (in German, Vol. XXII, 1990).
Goethe's Theory of Poetry: Faust and the Regeneration of Language, Benjamin Bennett. Review essay, Modern Philology (Vol. 86, No. 4, May 1989).
Invited Talks and Professional Activities
National Endowment for the Humanities: evaluator and panelist, national stipends 2005–06 (scholarly research proposals for federal funding in the field of Comparative Literature) Washington, D.C., 2004.
Northwestern University, Training Future Faculty program, 1999-2000.
Guest Senior Thesis examiner, Honors German Program, Knox College, 2000.
“Goethe’s Faust: Striving and Redemption,” Lake Forest College, 1998.
Richter Scholar, collaborative student-faculty research (Holocaust theory), 1997.
“Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird,” Berufshochschule Nürnberg, 1995.
“Dialogism Prëempted in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” (NEH Wagner Seminar), Bayreuth, Germany, 1994.
“Nutshells and Infinite Space,” Great Teacher Address at Senior Awards Ceremony, Lake Forest College, 1993.
“Odysseus as a Storyteller: Chronotope, Structure and Reflexivity in the Odyssey” (NEH seminar, Bakhtin's literary theory), Northwestern University, 1991.
“Faust und der Sturm und Drang” (University of Chicago Women's Association), 1991.
Moderator, panel on “Revising Existing Courses,” ACM Conference “Transforming the Curriculum,” 1991.
“Goethe: Lyrik und Klassik” (University of Chicago Women's Association), 1991.
“Goethe's Winckelmannbild and the Idea of Classicism” (American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and Goethe Society of North America, Minneapolis), 1990.
“War and Peace: Goethe's Reluctant Dialectic” (Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of Colorado), 1990.
Discussant, “Concept Formation in the German Review” (Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis), 1989.
Panelist, Chicago Teaching Program Workshop, “Stalking the Academic Job: Strategies for the Ongoing Process” (University of Chicago), 1989.
“Revolution, Justice and Order in Goethe's War Memoire Belagerung von Mainz” (American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies-Goethe Society of North America, New Orleans), 1989.
Moderator, International Symposium “Autonoumous Literature in Germany During the Age of the French Revolution,” State University of New York (Albany), 1988.
“Goethe, Cellini and Winckelmann” (University of Colorado, Boulder), 1986.
“Goethe's Biographical and Autobiographical Tasks” (University of Chicago Seminar and Lecture Series on Humanism and the Humanities), 1985.
“Wieland's Musarion: Kalokagathe and Classicism” (German Department Colloquium, University of Chicago), 1981.
Awards and Honors
MELLON FOUNDATION (course development grant), 2003.
NEH GRANT (New York University and Bayreuth, Germany), 1994.
GREAT TEACHER AWARD, Lake Forest College, 1993.
ASPEN INSTITUTE, Wye Fellow, 1992.
WILLIAM H. DUNN AWARD (teaching and research), Lake Forest College, 1991.
NEH GRANT (Northwestern University), 1991.
FULBRIGHT Seminar, Bonn and Berlin, 1989.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: Doctoral Dissertation, “Historiography and Autobiography: Self-Representation and Historical Narrative in Works of Goethe,” awarded Honors, 1985.
UNIVERSITY of MUNICH: Preliminary dissertation work magna cum laude, 1983.
DAAD-FULBRIGHT Doctoral Research Fellowship, 1981–83.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO — UNIVERSITÄT FRANKFURT Exchange Fellowship, 1969–70.