Franz-Josef Deiters

Biography

Franz-Josef Deiters is currently Honorary Associate Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Sydney. He is an internationally recognised scholar.

Deiters read German Literature, Philosophy and Linguistics at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany) where he completed his studies in 1993 with the degree of Magister Artium (MA). In 1997, he received his Dr. phil. (PhD), and in 2004, he was awarded the Habilitation (Higher Doctorate). From 2006 to 2020 he was Associate Professor of German Studies at Monash University in Melbourne (Australia). In 2010, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Deiters has held visiting appointments at the University of Sarajevo (2005), Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt/M (2006), and the University of Bergamo (2018).

Franz-Josef Deiters has published widely on German literature, theatre, and the intersections of literature and philosophy. He has given conference papers and invited lectures at universities and academic societies in Australia, Asia, across Europe, and in the United States of America. He is a member of several academic associations, including the German Studies Association of Australia (GSAA, Treasurer and Member of the Executive Board 2007-2011), the Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik (IVG), the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar, the Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Gesellschaft, and the Hugo-von-Hofmannsthal-Gesellschaft. In general, his research areas range across the history of German literature and culture from the 18th century to the present, and the field of literary and philosophical aesthetics.

Following the publication of his three-volume study on the mediology of theatre (“Die Entweltlichung der Bühne. Zur Mediologie des Theaters der klassischen Episteme” [2015], “Verweltlichung der Bühne? Zur Mediologie des Theaters der Moderne” [2019], and “Neues Welttheater? Zur Mediologie des Theaters der Neo-Avantgarden” [2022]), Deiters’ latest monograph dealt with the religious discourse on Germany in the age of world wars. It contains chapters on authors such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal (cultural Catholicism), Helmuth Plessner (cultural Calvinism), Thomas Mann (cultural Lutheranism), and Hermann Cohen (cultural Judaism). The title of the book is “Sprechen über Deutschland – vom Standpunkt der Religion: Vier Stimmen im Zeitalter der Weltkriege: Eine kulturwissenschaftliche Studie”. Upon its publication in 2024, he has now embarked on a new book-length study on the major German author Martin Mosebach.

He is a co-editor of the book series “Transpositionen/Transpositions: Australische Studien zur deutschen Literatur, Philosophie und Kultur/Australian Studies in German Literature, Philosophy and Culture” (Erich Schmidt Verlag), and, from 2008 to 2023, he was a co-editor of “Limbus: Australisches Jahrbuch für germanistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft/Australian Yearbook of German Literary and Cultural Studies” (Rombach Wissenschaft/Nomos).