Gert Mattenklott

Gert Mattenklott (21 January 1942 – 3 October 2009) was a German comparatist, art philosopher, critic, and essayist.

Biography

Mattenklott studied General and Comparative Literature, Philosophy, German Studies and History in Berlin, Göttingen and Grenoble, especially with Péter Szondi, Jacob Taubes and Wilhelm Emrich. He received his doctorate with a dissertation on Melancholie in der Dramatik des Sturm und Drang. Already at the age of 27, he habilitated in 1969 with the study Bilderdienst. Ästhetische Opposition bei Beardsley und George. During his habilitation he was a Research Fellow at Yale University. From 1972 to 1994 he taught as a full professor of Modern German Literature and Comparative Literature at University of Marburg, and since 1985 also as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1994, he returned to the Peter Szondi Institute at Free University of Berlin as a full professor of comparative literature.

Mattenklott has held numerous visiting professorships, including in Japan, the USA, Israel, and several times in Italy. He also worked as a critic, among others for the Merkur, for the Neue Rundschau, for Sinn und Form, for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). His research interests included Judaica, aesthetics, the arts in comparison, and world literature in globalization.

Mattenklott was married to Gundel Mattenklott (born 1945), professor in the department of music-aesthetic education at the Berlin University of the Arts. His grave is located at the Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II in Berlin.

Works

• Melancholie in der Dramatik des Sturm und Drang (1968)
• Bilderdienst. Ästhetische Opposition bei Beardsley und George (1970)
• Der übersinnliche Leib. Beiträge zur Metaphysik des Körpers (1982)
• Blindgänger. Physiognomische Essais (1986)
• Berlin Transit. Eine Stadt als Station (1987; with Gundel Mattenklott)
• Deutsche Briefe 1750-1950 (1988; editor, with Hannelore Schlaffer and Heinz Schlaffer)
• Jüdische Intelligenz in deutschen Briefen. 1619–1988 (1988; reprinted as Über Juden in Deutschland, 1992)
• Karl Blossfeldt, Urformen der Kunst – Wundergarten der Natur. Das fotografische Werk in einem Band (1994; contributor)
• Berlin. Jüdisches Städtebild. Mit einer stadtgeschichtlichen Einführung von Inka Bertz (1997; editor)
• Ästhetik des Ähnlichen (2001; with Gerald Funk and Michael Pauen)
• Ästhetische Erfahrung im Zeichen der Entgrenzung der Künste. Epistemische, ästhetische und religiöse Formen von Erfahrung im Vergleich (2004; editor)
• Ästhetische Opposition. Essays zu Literatur, Kunst und Kultur (2010)

External links

• Works by Gert Mattenklott at German National Library