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Home > Faculty : Peter E. Firchow

Professor

Department of English
University of Minnesota
310D Lind Hall
207 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612)625-3363
pef@umn.edu

Special Interests

• Modern British and American literature
• Comparative literature (nineteenth- and twentieth-century novel)
• Literature and society
• Translation (theory and practice)
• Modern poetry
• Utopian literature
• Shaw, Huxley, Conrad, and Auden

Honors & Awards

• Winner of the Victor J. Emmett prize for the best essay to appear in the Midwest Quarterly in 2004.
• Fulbright Lecture Award, National University of Costa Rica, 2000
• Ruth Christie Award for Excellence in Teaching, Department of English, University of Minnesota,1992
• Fulbright Lecture/Research Award, University of Bonn (Germany), 1995-96
• ACLS Travel Grant, 1985; China Center Travel Grant, 1987; Fulbright Travel Grant, 1988; Austrian Center, University of Minnesota, 1989, Travel Grant; Travel to Collections Grant, National Endowment far the Humanities, 1990; MacMillan Travel Grant, 1969, 1984, 1985; 1986; 1987. Travel Grant, Office for International Education, 1991, 93, 94; Travel Grant, Western European Area Studies Center, 1991; Travel Grant Center for European Studies, 1994
• Sabbatical Leave: 1973-74; 1980-81; 1989-90; 1997-98
• Robert Miller Award for the Best Essay to Appear in a College English Association Publication, 1985
• University of Minnesota Summer Fellowship, 1984
• Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1977
• Weimar International Summer Institute, GDR, 1972.
• Various Grants from the University of Minnesota Graduate School and the Office of International Programs, 1968-94
• Horace Rackham Graduate School Grant, University of Michigan, 1966-67
• Knapp Trust Fellow, University of Wisconsin, 1964-65
• Buckley Scholar, Harvard College, 1955-59

Background

• Education
  • University of Wisconsin, Ph.D., 1965
  • Harvard University, M.A., 1961
  • University of Vienna, Austria, 1959-60; University of Seville, 1960
  • Harvard College, B.A., 1959 (magna cum laude)
• Academic Appointments
  • Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Austria), Summer Semester 2003, Visiting Professor
  • National University of Costa Rica. Fulbright Visiting Professor, 2000
  • University of Bonn (Germany). Fulbright Visiting Professor, 1995-96
  • Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Austria), Summer Semester 1989, Visiting Professor
  • Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München (Germany), Winter Semester 1988/89k Visiting Professor
  • Jilin University. Changchun, Peoples Republic of China, 1987. (Appointed Permanent Guest Professor, 1988)
  • National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, Visiting Professor (Special Chair),1982-83
  • University of Minnesota, Director, Comparative Literature Program, 1972-78
  • University of Minnesota, Professor, 1973-
  • University of Minnesota, Associate Professor, 1969-73
  • University of Minnesota, Assistant Professor of English & Comparative Literature, 1967-69
  • University of Michigan, Asst. Professor of English, 1965-67
  • University of Wisconsin, Teaching Assistant, 1961-64

Publications

• Books

  	Modern Utopian Fiction from H. G. Wells to Iris Murdoch (The Catholic University of America Press, 04/2007). 224 pp.
  Reluctant Modernists: Aldous Huxley and Some Contemporaries. (Munster: Lit Publishers, 2002; Distributed in the U.S. by Transaction Publishers, New York.). 315 pp. From the reviews: "Firchow's meticulously researched studies clearly reveal that "reluctance" is a defining characteristic of modernism not only in Huxley's case. Continuity is the larger force moderating ruthless and radical rupture. Continuity is predestined to prevail, because we are human beings inevitably bound by time into the larger web of history which necessarily creates an awareness in us prompting understanding, knowledge, participation, and creativity, all factors favoring various degrees of reluctance to leave proven measures behind. S¹ Peter Firchow knows that his understanding of modernism represents during these times a minority view, and it is for this reason that he is all the more eager to put it forward - deservedly so - since his research is immaculate, his evidence well documented, and his achievement and contribution to modernism studies without blemish". Hans H. Rudnick, English Literature in Transition (47:4 (2004), 488-91.
  W.H. Auden: Contexts for Poetry (University of Delaware Press, 2002). 274 pp. From the reviews: “The book is, for the most part, attractively written and unencumbered by any of the jargon of critical theory; there is a leisure to the exegesis which serves to remind one that reading criticism can, in fact, be immensely pleasurable.” Adrian Caesar, Modern Language Review, 99. 3, (1 July 2004), 759. “The originality of this book is most apparent in its details. Some of these belong to the category of surprising Auden trivia (for example, the information that he briefly practiced yoga and contemplated becoming Buddhist in 1939). Others illuminate the poetry in striking ways: the roots of some of Auden's stylistic eccentricities in German syntax and Austrian idioms; his ongoing, fraught engagement with Rilke's influence; the allusion to Nietzsche's Zarathustra in "September 1, 1939," where Auden writes, famously, "There is no such thing as the State." As these examples suggest, one of Firchow's critical assets is his facility with German language and knowledge of German literature. Auden's avowed preference for Germany over France is well known, but this book shows in detail that he was not simply defying modernist francophilia but genuinely responding to German culture and intellectual thought.” Richard R., Bozorth, Modernism/modernity, 10.3 (2003), 584. “This is a helpful book in that it draws together diverse strands from the extensive critical findings on Auden and his period in order to reconstruct the social, political and cultural contexts as differentiated frames of reference for a more specific, contextually informed reading of Auden’s poetry than has been proposed so far. This method of contextualisation enables Firchow to see Auden’s multiple stances (e.g., his leader and group fantasies, his religious and moral concepts, his playfulness and penchant for playing jokes on the reader) as patterns underlying his poems and thus to elucidate obscure passages as well as pinpoint the ambiguities, confusions and self-contradictions, above all in the overtly ideological poems such as ‘A Communist to Others,’ caused by unresolved conflicts with Auden’s personal situation, his views and intentions at the time.” Peter Hühn, Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 28, 2 (2003), 363-364. “Firchow attempts in his thoughtful and attractively written book to ‘contextualise” this ever elusive, chameleon figure in terms of intellectual and social history, biography and textual analysis…This is an agreeable book and a splendid introduction to Auden’s century and to some of its poetic modes and fashions.” P.G. Stanwood, Anglia, 122, 2 (2004), 353-356.
  Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 258 pp. From the reviews: "Firchow's verdict, based on a thorough and well-researched analysis, is scathing. Maps, photographs, illustrations, a plenitude of end-notes, an impressive bibliography, and an appendix that includes an eye-witness account (translated from the German) are brought to bear in this interesting work that is both a defense of an acknowledged masterpiece of English literature and an attack on sloppy criticism. The professor has done his homework and makes his case for Conrad with a scientist's meticulousness. His book will be essential for Conrad scholars and a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in literary polemics and/or late 19th-century European colonial activities in central Africa." Virginia Quarterly Review, 76,3 (2000), 90-91. "In one brilliant chapter, Firchow carefully shapes the horror of the enigmatic Kurtz and describes how Kurtz survived as part of Marlow's self. Firchow fights hard to prevent the unspeakable rites at the core of the novel from being cannibalized by critics and concludes that the meaning of the novel lies somewhere between angels and fiends. He appends an English translation of Oscar Baumann's description of Stanley Falls station and 43 pages of rich note...Essential for all academic libraries." R. F. Cayton, Choice, (2000), 1466. "Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' is one of the most impressive events in Conrad scholarship of the past half decade. As balanced as it is comprehensive, Firchow's contribution to what has become the most hotly contested area of Conrad studies tempts one to use the word 'definitive.' Its numerous close readings are both sensitive and creative, and the study's grounding in the many relevant contexts for an understanding of Conrad's African fiction is admirably deep and broad...at its best, Firchow's study is reminiscent of Ian Watt's pioneering Conrad in the Nineteenth Century (1979) for its adept handling of textual, contextual, and intellectual-historical material. Well-written, thoughtfully argued, and including a comprehensive bibliography and index, and an original translation of an important scholarly resource, Oscar Baumann's "The Stanley Falls Station: Description of the Toppography and Inhabitants of the Stanley Falls of the Congo River,' Firchow's study, I feel confident, will prove to be an authoritative, even indispensable, work for scholars of Conrad's controversial novella for years to come." Brian W. Shaffer, Criticism, 42 (Spring 2000), 276-78.
  The Abbey. By Alois Brandstetter. Translated by Peter and Evelyn Firchow. Afterword by Peter Firchow. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 1998. 224 pp. From the reviews: "Although he is an important contemporary author in Austria, Brandstetter (b.1939) is not well known in the US. Ariadne may correct this situation with this fine volume, the first of Brandstetter's novels to be made available in English translation...The translators (both Univ. of Minnesota) have provided a smooth and clear text; their extensive afterword serves to greatly elucidate the author and his text.." R. Acker, Choice, 37 (September 1999), 149. "Academic critics have mostly ignored Brandstetter, who has characterized himself as 'a writer of cultivated boredom,' preferring Stifter's idyllic model but criticizing what is dear to him from a position of intellectual and moral exile...The translators have done an outstanding job in making this extremely 'European' novel and its author available in English." H.H. Rudnick, World Literature Today, 74:1 (Winter 2000), 153.
  The Death of the German Cousin: Variations on a Literary Stereotype, 1890-1920 (Lewisburg, Pa: Bucknell University Press, 1986), 242 pp. From the reviews: "Es ist das Verdienst dieses sehr lesbaren and lesenswerten Buches, am Beispiel des German Cousin den Umbruch eines Freundbildes in ein Feindbild umfassend und sorgfältig dokumentiert und die in diesem Vorgang zutage tretende Anfälligkeit des Intellekts für vorurteilhafte Stereotypenbildung in ironischer Distanz dargestellt zu haben. Manche wertvolle Erkenntnis ist überdies in den zahlreichen Anmerkungen versteckt..." Günther Blaicher, Anglia, 109, 304 (1991), 538. "One of the most interesting parts of this book is the seventh chapter, 'Into Cleanness Leaping': Brooke, Eliot, Shaw and Lawrence.' Here, Firchow links these four writers by their view of the death of the old self as a necessary step towards rebirth of a 'Life Force,' war as the only means by which decadence can be overcome. It is a daring but often convincing comparison between four writers usually considered so disparate... Wittily erudite, and with a frequently wry elegance, Firchow dispels many cherished British myths about Germans and about British superiority." E.A. McCobb, New Comparison, 6 (Autumn 1988), 228.
  The End of Utopia: A Study of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" (Lewisburg, Pa: Bucknell University Press, 1984), 154 pp. From the reviews: En maints passages Peter Firchow semble illustrer le propos d'Aldous Huxley qui, un jour, se compara à la abeille butineuse de fleurs. La diversité des connaissances du romancier laisse au chercheur un vaste champ d'exploration. Avec une érudition consommée, Peter Firchow procède a des investigations multiples. Elles révèlent la complexité du réseau culturel dans lequel s'inscrit Brave New World." André Dommergues, Études Anglaises, 39 (October-December 1986), 495. "Mr. Firchow's study of Huxley's Brave New World is no summary of a set of questions that discredit the present. It is, instead, a meditation on Huxley's queries about worlds to come... Firchow's execution of these matters has a system and a range of illustration that commend his study to any student of nineteenth and twentieth-century utopian theory and fiction... Firchow weaves together, from remarks early and late in Huxley's writings, a texture that supports his view of Brave New World. The book is an apologia for values that Wells did not much esteem and that [Ford Madox] Ford feared had become inoperative. The warnings of Huxley and the somewhat different warnings of Orwell suggest that abandonment of those values may have its dangers as well as benefits. Indeed, certain passages in Firchow's essay have an evangelical tone, but his careful exposition and search for evidence give him, I think, the privileges he sometimes takes." Harold Watts, Modern Fiction Studies, 31 (Summer 1985), 346-47.
  East German Short Stories: An Introductory Anthology (Boston: Twayne, 1979), xxvi + 251 pp. Edited, translated, and introduced by P.E. and E.S. Firchow. From the reviews: "The Firchows are to be commended for editing and translating such a fine addition to the small number of English translations of the German Democratic Republic. The works chosen, with their straightforward plots and plentiful actions, translated into crisp, contemporary English, lend themselves well to an introductory course on German literature in English translation on the high school or university levels... the concise but incisive introduction presents an excellent overview of GDR history and its effects upon the literary scene in the German Democratic Republic." Dagmar Cäcilia Stern, Modern Language Journal, 65 (Spring 1981), 114. "Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Firchows lies in their own highly readable and faithful translations. Their talent for recreating the style, flow, language, and cultural context of short stories by such diverse writers as Günter Kunert, Stephan Hermlin, and Johannes Brobrowski deserves praise and recognition. East German Short Stories merits reading for pleasure and consideration as a textbook for literature in translation courses concerned with GDR literature or with the short story genre." Bonnie Beckett, Yearbook of Comparative & General Literature, 28 (1979), 61.
  The Writer's Place. Interviews on the Literary Situation in Contemporary Britain (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974). 365 pp. From the reviews: "Recommended to all who profess an interest in British literature today, this book demonstrates the value of the well-done collected interview technique as a forum for the presentation of informed opinion... In thoughtful, and yet not seemingly contrived conversations, novelists, poets, publishers, and editors discuss topics which range from state support of literature to the impact (or lack of it) of reviews on book sales. Firchow's ability as an interviewer has elicited also many interesting comments on individual authors' works." Mary E. Thatcher, Library Journal, 100 (March 1975), 482. "Since Firchow limits himself to twenty-three interviews, he makes no claim to providing a definitive study; as he modestly asserts, the work is a series of impressions 'of what it is like to be a professional, serious writer in England today.' Even without the statistics and the wider-ranging analysis that a Richard Altick might provide, the book is useful for those interested in the sociology of literature. And it is also useful in providing insight about the aesthetic goals and writing habits of several important writers such as Kingsley Amis, Roy Fuller, V.S. Pritchett, John Wain and Angus Wilson. There are interesting personal revelations such as Margaret Drabble's remarks about the restrictive Leavisite atmosphere at Cambridge for students interested in creative writing." Howard German, Modern Fiction Studies, 21 (Winter 1975-76), 601.
  Aldous Huxley, Satirist and Novelist (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1972), 205 pp. From the reviews: "Of this clutch of books on Huxley [by Sybille Bedford, Peter Firchow, Keith May, and Philip Thody] one stands out: Peter Firchow's study of Huxley as a satirist... I cannot accept his estimate of Huxley, but his arguments have had the effect of returning me to Huxley's own works, and his analysis is a delight to read." Richard Luckett, The Spectator (London), 231 (November 2, 1973), 579. "Firchow has mastered the Huxley canon--no mean feat. And he defends Huxley from his detractors with perceptions of his own that are worthy of his subject... There are additional benefits to the reader of this study. Prototypes of characters and situations are identified or suggested. And the meanings of the names given certain characters--e.g., Rampion as the name of a European bellflower whose roots are edible--are traced. But these are, properly, fringe benefits. The main pleasure is that of a tour through the fiction of Huxley in the company of a guide who is amiable and admiring, a guide who has only limited patience with detractors of his subject." Harold Watts, Journal of Modern Literature, (February 1974), 651-52.
  Friedrich Schlegel's "Lucinde" and the Fragments (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971), 277 pp. Edited, translated, and introduced by P.E. Firchow. Partially reprinted as Philosophical Fragments (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), 112 pp. (second reprinting, 1995). From the reviews: "The perfect translation would be one that is both completely literal and completely idiomatic, but this is evidently an ideal that cannot be attained, least of all in the case of an author as notoriously difficult as F. Schlegel. Firchow rightly made it his primary aim to produce a text that reads well and really sounds English, and he was prepared when necessary to sacrifice the letter to the spirit. His English version of Lucinde is wholly admirable. The translator of Schlegel's Fragmente constantly faces the problem that this author's highly individualistic style and idiosyncratic vocabulary force him to interpret before he can translate, but here too Firchow shows skill, tact, and erudition. Thus, to quote a random example, when tackling Schlegel's phrase "dramatische und romantische Kunst bei den Engländern' (Lyceums-Fragmente, 49), he was surely right in avoiding the 'obvious' translation, 'dramatic and romantic art with the English,' which is gibberish, and substituting quite simply, 'the English drama and novel.' Similar occasions where Firchow has skillfully avoided the pitfalls that beset the translator of these exceptionally recalcitrant texts abound on almost every page." Hans Eichner, German Quarterly, 46 (May 1973), 478-79. "...an urgent need has arisen for an accurate and readable version of this novel [Lucinde] in the English of our time. Peter Firchow has met this need so brilliantly that his English rendition of Lucinde, of the three complete series of Critical Fragments, Athenaum Fragments, and Ideas, and of the Essay 'On Incomprehensibility' may be acclaimed as one of the finest translations of German literature accomplished in this century." Raymond Immerwahr, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 72 (April 1973), 287.

• Other Publications
  • Professor Firchow has published more than fifty essays in book collections and scholarly journals including PMLA, Anglia, American Literary History and Études Anglaises, Salmagundi, the South Atlantic Quarterly, Modern Fiction Studies, Comparative Literature, and the Journal of Modern Literature. He has also published more than sixty book reviews in such journals as the Michigan Quarterly Review, World Literature Today, the Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, and English Literature in Transition.

Teaching

• Introductory
  • Introduction to Modern Literature: Poetry
  • Introduction to Modern Literature: Fiction
  • Introduction to Modern Literature: Drama
  • Survey: Romantics to the Present
  • The Modern World I: The 18th-Century (Humanities)
  • The Modern World III: Late 19th-Century (Humanities)
• Intermediate
  • Victorian Novel (2 quarters)
  • Modern British Survey (3 quarters)
  • Modern British Poetry
  • Auden and Thomas
  • Modern British Women Novelists
  • Honors Seminar on W. H. Auden
  • Honors Seminar on George Bernard Shaw
  • The Modern Age
  • Modernist Poetry and the Tradition
  • Honors Poetry: Poetry Since the Renaissance
  • Modernist Poetry: Yeats, Eliot, Auden
  • Modern Literary Theory
  • Chekhov & Shaw
  • Engl 3121: Modernism
  • Utopian Fiction
• Mixed Graduate & Undergraduate
  • Modern British Novel
  • Modern British & American Poetry
  • Auden
  • The Edwardians
  • Bloomsbury
  • Modern British Poetry
  • Hesse, Camus & Huxley (Comp. Lit.) (2 quarters)
  • Fantasy Literature (Comp. Lit.)
  • European Novel (2 quarters) (Comp Lit)
  • Translation: Theory & Practice (Comp. Lit.)
  • Modern Poetry (Comp. Lit.)
• Proseminar & Seminar
  • The British Thirties
  • Literature of the Great War
  • Modern Novel
  • Huxley & Orwell
  • Lawrence & Forster
  • Literature of the Thirties
  • Drabble & Murdoch
  • Required Comparative Lit. Seminar in Theory & Methods (2 quarters)
  • Modernism (Comp. Lit.)
  • Literature & Ideas (Comp. Lit.)
  • Fiction of Joseph Conrad
  • EngL 8119: British Imperialist Fictions

Other Activities

• Director of Comparative Literature Program, University of Minnesota, 1972-78
• Vice-President, Midwest Modern Language Association, 1976-77
• President, Midwest Modern Language Association, 1977-78

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Last modified July 24, 2008