Dr Elystan Griffiths MA (Cantab), PhD, SFHEA

Department of Modern Languages
Reader in Modern Languages

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6178
Email: e.griffiths@bham.ac.uk

Address: Room 207, Ashley Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

My research interests focus on the relationship between social and political inequalities and German culture in the period between 1750 and 1850. I have a particular interest in outsider figures, and above all the work of J.M.R. Lenz and Heinrich von Kleist. I have recently published a monograph on German-language pastoral writing, and am currently working on projects on the relationship between obedience and agency in German culture and on the Sturm und Drang. I teach widely across the curriculum in Modern Languages, including language, literature and cinema.

Staff details
Media information

Qualifications

MA (Cantab) in Modern and Medieval Languages
PhD in German Studies
PG Cert HE, University of Birmingham

Biography

I grew up in Cardiff and attended a comprehensive school. I went on to study Modern Languages (German and French) at Robinson College, Cambridge and completed my doctorate on Heinrich von Kleist's thought on politics, law and military matters under the supervision of Professor Michael Perraudin. Following two postdoctoral posts I joined the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer in 2005. From 2019 to 2024 I was Deputy Director of Education of the College of Arts and Law.

Teaching

Within the Department, I teach German language, literature, history and film, and I contribute to modules on European film. I also teach a final-year option on German-Language Cinema since 1960.

Postgraduate supervision

My main research interests are in German literature of the period 1750-1850, with a particular interest in how social and political tensions manifest themselves in German culture. I have also supervised doctoral work on German-language cinema and have a particular interest in contemporary German and Austrian film. I am currently supervising a number of PhD projects, on German-language writing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. If you have a project in mind, please do get in touch.

Find out more - our PhD German Studies page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

My research is focused on German culture and society from 1750 to 1850. I am the author of books on Heinrich von Kleist's politics (2005), and on German-language pastoral from 1750 to 1850 (2020). Along with David Hill, I edited the first edition of J.M.R. Lenz's writings on social and military reform (the so-called 'Berkaer Projekt') (2007). Along with Martin Wagner, Calgary I am currently working on a book for Toronto University Press dealing with conceptualisations of obedience in the period from 1750-1850. I am also working with Seán Allan (St. Andrews) on a second project on Heinrich von Kleist's journalism and letters. I am also in the early stages of the project that aims to position the German Sturm und Drang movement in transnational contexts.

I am currently co-editor of German Life and Letters (Wiley), the UK's oldest journal in German Studies. From 2025, I will be co-editor of the Lenz-Jahrbuch, published by Wehrhahn-Verlag. Do get in touch if you would like to discuss potential publications.

Other activities

I am a trustee of Yardley Educational Foundation.

Publications

Highlight publications

Griffiths, E 2020, The Shepherd, the Volk, and the Middle Class: Transformations of Pastoral in German-Language Writing, 1750-1850. Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, Boydell and Brewer, Rochester NY. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787446762

Hill, D, Griffiths, E & Tommek, H 2007, Jacob Michael Reinhold Lenz. Schriften zur Sozialreform: Das Berkaer Projekt. Historical-Critical Works on German Literature, vol. 42, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main.

Griffiths, E 2004, Political Change and Human Emancipation in the Works of Heinrich von Kleist. Camden House, Rochester, NY.

Griffiths, E & Wagner, M (eds) 2021, 'The Drama of Obedience', Oxford German Studies, vol. 50, no. 3. <https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yogs20/50/3>

Griffiths, E & Wagner, M (eds) 2020, 'Genres of Obedience', Seminar A Journal of Germanic Studies, vol. 56, no. 2. <https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/42196>

Recent publications

Article

Griffiths, E 2023, 'Filial dependence and autonomy in the Sturm und Drang: reading Klinger, Wagner and Müller with Rousseau', German Life and Letters, vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 21-42. https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12370

Wagner, M & Griffiths, E 2021, 'The Drama of Obedience: Introduction', Oxford German Studies, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 269-284. https://doi.org/10.1080/00787191.2021.1958567

Griffiths, E & Wagner, M 2020, 'Introduction: Genres of Obedience', Seminar A Journal of Germanic Studies, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 85-91. <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/753886#info_wrap>

Griffiths, E 2020, 'Sophie von La Roches Zeitschrift Pomona für Teutschlands Töchter und der literarische Markt der 1780er Jahre im Lichte unveröffentlichter Briefe', German Life and Letters, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 161-211. https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12259

Griffiths, E 2014, '"Oft reiss' ich mich aus der Stadt los, und fliehe in einsame Gegenden": Social Criticism in Salomon Gessner’s Idylls', Publications of the English Goethe Society, vol. 83, pp. 22-36. https://doi.org/10.1179/0959368314Z.00000000029, https://doi.org/10.1179/0959368314Z.00000000029

Griffiths, E 2014, 'Sophie von La Roche, Shaftesbury and the Problem of Virtue: Inheritance and Self-Creation in Die Geschichte des Frauleins von Sternheim', Forum for Modern Language Studies, vol. 50, pp. 82-96. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqt045

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Griffiths, E 2021, “Der große Schauspieler, Napoleon Buonaparte”: August von Kotzebue’s Antitheatrical Politics. in S Allan & J High (eds), Inspiration Bonaparte? : German Culture and Napoleonic Occupation. Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, Camden House.

Griffiths, E & Hill, D 2016, Die Berkaer Schriften. in J Freytag, H-G Winter & I Stephan (eds), J. M. R. Lenz Handbuch. De Gruyter Reference, De Gruyter, pp. 257-267. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110237610-011

Griffiths, E 2015, 'Die Napoleonische Kolonialpolitik und die Zerstörung der Idylle: Kleists Die Verlobung in St. Domingo und Salomon Gessners Inkel und Yariko'. in C Zelle, A Lütteken & W de Bruyn (eds), Kleist in der Schweiz - Kleist und die Schweiz. Wehrhahn, Hanover. <http://www.wehrhahn-verlag.de/index.php?section=&subsection=details&id=1032>