The issue of Poe's competence in the field of German language and literature is central to understanding his creative method. For over one hundred years readers have been intrigued and troubled by the spate of references to German literature in his works, by his jabs at German scholarship, and by his extensive use of German quotation and isolated German words to embellish his texts. Did Poe speak or read German? Did he know Wilhelm Meister and E. T. A. Hoffman in the original? Could he read Schlegel and Kant in German to the extent that these thinkers directly influenced his aesthetics? Definitive answers to such questions are long overdue, and Professor Hansen's lecture will sort through Poe's complex relationship to German language, literature and culture.
Professor Hansen is the co-author (with WPI's David Dollenmayer) of Neue Horizonte, a highly regarded German textbook now in its 4th edition. His articles on Poe have appeared in the Southern Humanities Review and other scholarly journals.