Theodore Ziolkowski
- Born:
- September 4, 1932, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
- Died:
- December 5, 2020, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Nationality:
- American
- Profession(s):
- Germanic Studies Scholar, Literary Critic, Novelist
Early Life and Education
- Ziolkowski received his A.B. (1951), M.A. (1952), and Ph.D. (1955) from Harvard University.
- He studied at the University of Tübingen as a Fulbright Scholar.
Career and Major Achievements
- He began his teaching career at Yale University in 1955.
- Joined Princeton University in 1964, serving as Dean of the Graduate School from 1979 to 1989.
- He was the Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University.
- Ziolkowski was awarded the Christian Gauss Award for literary criticism from Phi Beta Kappa.
- He received the James W. Cook Prize from Princeton University.
Notable Works
- Hermann Broch (1964)
- Disenchanted Images: A Literary Iconology (1977)
- The Classical German Elegy, 1795-1950 (1980)
- Varieties of Literary Thematics (1983)
- German Romanticism and Its Institutions (1990)
- The Mirror of Science: Mirrors and Reflections in Science, Fiction and Society (1998)
- Clare Benedict: An American in Weimar Germany, 1922-1935 (2001)
- Minos and the Moderns: Cretan Myth in Twentieth-Century Literature and Art (2008)
- Uses and Abuses of Moses: Literary Representations since the Enlightenment (2018)
Legacy and Impact
Theodore Ziolkowski was a highly respected scholar of German literature and comparative literature. His extensive body of work explored a range of topics, from literary themes and iconology to the intersection of literature and science. This concise biography of Theodore Ziolkowski highlights his contributions to the field and his influence on generations of scholars.