Spring 2012 Office Hours: M 2-3, W 11-12, F 9-10

Professor Gillman’s research interests are German Jewish literature and thought; Austrian literature; modernism; memory (literary, religious, cultural); Biblical and Rabbinic texts; Bible translation; modern Hebrew literature; and foreign-language pedagogy.

Among her courses are Franz Kafka; Nineteenth-Century German Literature; Early 20th-century German Literature; Modern Hebrew Literature; German-Jewish Literature and Thought; and the literary afterlife of the book of Genesis. Professor Gillman also teaches in the Core Curriculum. Presently she oversees both the Hebrew and German sections of MLCL.

Her book Viennese Jewish Modernism: Freud, Hofmannsthal, Beer-Hofmann, and Schnitzler was published by Penn State Press in April 2009. According to the publisher’s website, Professor Gillman “challenges the conventional understanding of modernism as simply a
break from tradition. Until recently, the study of Jewish modernism has centered on questions of Jewish and non-Jewish identity, generally ignoring the role Judaism played in the formulation of European modernism as a whole. By focusing on the works of major Viennese authors and thinkers — Freud, Hofmannsthal, Beer-Hofmann, and Schnitzler — both within and outside the contexts of Jewish identity, Abigail Gillman provides a profound new perspective on modernism.” For more information on the book, visit the Penn State Press website.