{"id":3734,"date":"2013-10-09T20:20:46","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T00:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/?post_type=profile&p=3734"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:15:48","slug":"peter-schwartz","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/profile\/peter-schwartz\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Schwartz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring 2026 Office Hours: Mondays 12:00-1:30, Thursdays 3:30-5:00, and by appointment.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Schwartz teaches courses in German and comparative literature and in film. He also teaches in the Core Curriculum and in Kilachand Honors College. His special interests include European neoclassicism, romanticism and modernism, early film and photography, the critical work of the Frankfurt School, literary and musical folk genres, propaganda, and the \u201cscience of culture\u201d (Kulturwissenschaft<\/em>) of the art historian Aby Warburg and his circle.\u00a0 He is the author of\u00a0After Jena: Goethe\u2019s\u00a0Elective Affinities\u00a0and the End of the Old Regime\u00a0<\/em>(Bucknell UP, 2010) and of articles on Goethe and his age,\u00a0the Faust tradition in its relation to media history, Georg B\u00fcchner’s play\u00a0Woyzeck<\/em>, the films of Michael Haneke, and the war archive of the German cultural historian Aby Warburg. Recent and forthcoming publications include the English translation from the German of Andr\u00e9 Jolles’s classic work of genre theory\u00a0Simple Forms<\/em> (2017), an iconographic study of Chinese Communist paper money and Soviet silent film (2014), an essay on Warburg and cinema (2020), and a co-edited volume of essays on Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann\u2019s collective documentary video project\u00a0Labour in a Single Shot<\/em> (2022).<\/p>\n

Publications<\/h2>\n

Book<\/h3>\n

After Jena: Goethe\u2019s <\/em>Elective Affinities and the End of the Old Regime<\/em> (Bucknell University Press, 2010). 358 pages.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bucknell.edu\/script\/upress\/book.asp?id=392<\/p>\n

Reviews: ECCB: The Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography<\/em> n.s. vol. 36 (for 2010):\u00a0 442-45, Eighteenth-Century Studies<\/em> 45.4 (2012): 613-16, German Quarterly<\/em> 84.1 (Winter 2011): 110-12, German Studies Review<\/em> 35.2 (May 2012): 402-403, Goethe-Jahrbuch<\/em> 128 (2011): 357-58, Goethe Yearbook<\/em> 18 (2011): 308-09, Monatshefte<\/em> 105.2 (2013): 332-34, Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies<\/em> 49.2 (2013): 254-56.<\/p>\n

EDITED VOLUME<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Labour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives on Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki\u2019s Global Video Project\u00a0<\/em>(Amsterdam University Press, 2022), ed. Roy Grundmann, Peter J. Schwartz and Gregory Williams.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.aup.nl\/en\/book\/9789048550210\/labour-in-a-single-shot<\/a><\/p>\n

Scholarly translations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Detlef Gericke, \u201cForeword,\u201d and Antje Ehmann, “Workshop Journals, 2011-2014,” in Labour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives<\/em> (Amsterdam University Press, 2022), ed. Roy Grundmann, Peter J. Schwartz and Gregory Williams. 13-27 & 51-96.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Jolles, Simple Forms<\/em> (London: Verso Books, 2017), with a foreword by Fredric Jameson and a critical introduction by Peter J. Schwartz. 272 pages<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.versobooks.com\/books\/2339-simple-forms<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviews: Marta Figlerowicz, \u201cHow To Do Things With Genres,\u201d Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>, 30 March 2017: https:\/\/lareviewofbooks.org\/article\/how-to-do-things-with-genres\/<\/a>; Jan Baetens, Critical Inquiry<\/em>, August 29, 2018: https:\/\/criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu\/jan_baetens_reviews_simple_forms\/<\/a>; David Martyn, \u201cThe Morphology of Simple Forms \u2013 Then and Now,\u201d Arcadia<\/em> 2018; 53(2): 445-452; Geertjan de Vugt, \u201cAndr\u00e9 Jolles: Vormen, Gebaren, en Formules,\u201d De Nederlandse Boekengids \/ The Dutch Review of Books<\/em>, 3\/6 (December 2018-January 2019), 45-7.; Andrew Teverson,\u00a0<\/span>Marvels & Tales<\/i>\u00a03.1 (2019): 207-209\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/733833<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Jolles, \u201cLegend\u201d (an abridgement of one chapter from\u00a0Simple Forms<\/em> [1929]), with a short introduction.\u00a0 PMLA<\/em> 128, No. 3 (May 2013): 728-743.<\/p>\n

Selections from Johann Christian August Clarus, The Legal Accountability of the Murderer Johann Christian Woyzeck, Demonstrated with Documentary Evidence According to the Principles of the Science of Public Health<\/em> (1825).\u00a0 In Matthew Wilson Smith, ed., Georg B\u00fcchner: The Major Works<\/em> (New York: Norton, 2012), 199-208.<\/p>\n

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS<\/h3>\n

\u201cAttitudes Toward Work. On the Historical Metamorphoses of Psychotechnology.\u201d in\u00a0Labour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives on Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki\u2019s Global Video Project\u00a0<\/em>(Amsterdam University Press, 2022), ed. Roy Grundmann, Peter J. Schwartz and Gregory Williams.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.degruyter.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/9789048550210-005\/html<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLabour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives \u2013 Editors\u2019 Introduction,\u201d co-written with Roy Grundmann and Gregory Williams, in\u00a0<\/span>Labour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives<\/em>. Ed. Roy Grundmann, Peter J. Schwartz and Gregory Williams (Amsterdam University Press, 2022), 29-49.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.degruyter.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/9789048550210-003\/html<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRube Stories and Paradigmatic Crimes as Narrative Modulators at Thresholds of Cultural Change.\u201d\u00a0Cosmo: Comparative Studies in Modernism<\/em>\u00a0(Turin) 18 (2021): 83-93.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ojs.unito.it\/index.php\/COSMO\/article\/view\/5917<\/a><\/p>\n

“Aby Warburg and Cinema, Revisited.”\u00a0New German Critique<\/i> 139 (Feb. 2020): 105-40. https:\/\/read.dukeupress.edu\/new-german-critique\/article-abstract\/47\/1%20(139)\/105\/151166\/Aby-Warburg-and-Cinema-Revisited?redirectedFrom=fulltext<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Guckt euch selbst an!\u2019 B\u00fcchner\u2019s Woyzeck<\/em> and the Pericope Adulterae<\/em>.\u201d In Robert Gillett and Ernest Schonfeld, eds., Georg B\u00fcchner: Contemporary Perspectives<\/em> (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 79-91.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormulating a Thesis; or: Chaos and Cosmos.\u201d Journal of the Core Curriculum<\/em> [Boston University], Number XXV (Spring 2016): 49-62. https:\/\/open.bu.edu\/handle\/2144\/28918<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ideological Antecedents of the First-Series Renminbi Worker-and-Peasant Banknote or What Mao Tse-tung May Have Owed to Dziga Vertov.\u201d Transcultural Studies<\/i> 1 (2014): 8-94.<\/p>\n

\u00a0https:\/\/journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de\/index.php\/transcultural\/article\/view\/13129<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019I\u2019ll burn my books!\u2019\u00a0 Faust(s), Magic, Media.\u201d\u00a0 In Simon Richter and Richard A. Block, eds., Goethe\u2019s Ghosts and the Persistence of Literature; Essays in Honor of Jane K. Brown<\/i> (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2013), 186-214.<\/p>\n

\u201cClarus, Woyzeck, and the Politics of Accountability.\u201d\u00a0 In Matthew Wilson Smith, ed., Georg B\u00fcchner: The Major Works<\/em> (New York: Norton, 2012), 368-73.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Void at the Center of Things: Figures of Identity in Michael Haneke\u2019s \u2018Glaciation\u2019 Trilogy.\u201d\u00a0 In A Companion to Michael Haneke<\/em>, ed. Roy Grundmann (Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 337-353.<\/p>\n

\u201cAby Warburgs Kriegskartothek. Vorbericht einer Rekonstruktion.\u201d\u00a0 In Kasten 117. Aby Warburg und der Aberglaube im Ersten Weltkrieg<\/em>, ed. Gottfried Korff (T\u00fcbingen: T\u00fcbinger Vereinigung f\u00fcr Volkskunde, 2008), 39-69.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Did Goethe Marry When He Did?\u201d Goethe Yearbook<\/em> 15 (2008): 115-130.<\/p>\n

\u201cGermans are to Greeks as French are to Romans: Metamorphoses of a Topos in German Literature, 1755-1819.\u201d Myths, Foundation Texts and Imagined Communities<\/em>, ed. Martin Prochazka & Ondrej Pilny (Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2005), 207-225.<\/p>\n

\u201cEduard\u2019s Egotism: Historical Notes on Goethe\u2019s Elective Affinities<\/em>.\u201d The Germanic Review<\/em>, Vol. 76, Nr. 1 (Winter 2001): 41-68.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Unpublished Essay by Goethe? \u2018Staatssachen. \u00dcber m\u00fcndliche deutsche Rechtspflege in\u00a0 Deutschland\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 The Germanic Review<\/em>, Vol. 73, Nr. 2 (Spring 1998): 107-131.<\/p>\n

Review essay<\/h3>\n

\u201cGoethe at 251.\u201d The Germanic Review<\/em>, Vol. 75, Nr. 4 (Fall 2000): 323-326 [review of: W. Daniel Wilson, Das Goethe-Tabu: Protest und Menschenrechte im klassischen Weimar; <\/em>Karl Hugo Pruys, Die Liebkosungen des Tigers. Eine erotische Goethe-Biographie; <\/em>Nicholas Boyle, Goethe: The Poet and the Age. Vol. 2: Revolution and Renunciation (1790-1803)<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Book reviews<\/h3>\n

Martin D\u00f6nike,\u00a0 Pathos, Ausdruck und Bewegung. Zur \u00c4sthetik des Weimarer Klassizismus 1796-1806<\/em>.\u00a0 Monatshefte <\/em>99, Nr. 4 (Winter 2007): 571-573.<\/p>\n

Werner Schlick, Goethe\u2019s <\/em>Die Wahlverwandtschaften: A Middle-Class Critique of Aesthetic Aristocratism<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Monatshefte<\/em> 96, Nr. 2 (Summer 2004): 292-294.<\/p>\n

Jutta Linder, \u2018Falsche Tendenzen\u2019. Der Staatsdiener Goethe und der Dichter<\/em>.\u00a0 Lessing Yearbook<\/em> XXXV (2003): 338-9.<\/p>\n

Courses taught<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
CAS CI 101<\/td>\nGlobal Cinemas I<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS CI 102<\/td>\nGlobal Cinemas II<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS WR 150<\/td>\nThe Social Contract<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS XL 222<\/td>\nIntroduction to Comparative Literature (Western Tradition)
\nThe Migration of Stories<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS XL 470<\/td>\nTopics in Comparative Literature: Monsters and Robots<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 250<\/td>\nIntroduction to German Literature in Translation
\nThe Difficulty of Being Human<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 282 \/ XL 470<\/td>\nMarx, Nietzsche, Freud<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 340<\/td>\nSchuldfragen: Germany Since 1989<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 387\/ CI 320<\/td>\nWeimar Cinema<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 388\/ CI 394<\/td>\nWorld Cities: Berlin – Image and Reality<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 350<\/td>\nIntroduction to German Literature:
\nTrue Crime. Guilt, Crime, Society and Justice in German Literature, 1782-199<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS XL 351
\n\/CAS LG 283<\/td>\n		The Faust Tradition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 452<\/td>\nThe Age of Reason and Revolution<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 453<\/td>\nRomanticism<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS LG 455<\/td>\nGerman Culture Before 1945<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KHC XL 103<\/td>\nProblems in Propaganda and Persuasion<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS XL 100<\/td>\nExplorations in World Literature: Leaving Home<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS CC 101<\/td>\nCore Humanities I: Ancient Worlds<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS CC 102<\/td>\nCore Humanities II: The Way: Antiquity and the Medieval World<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CAS CC 201<\/td>\nCore Humanities III: Renaissance, Rediscovery, and Reformation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Peter Schwartz’s CV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5147,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/3734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/3734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20183,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/3734\/revisions\/20183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}