Professor Ingo Cornils

Profile

I was educated at the Theodor Mommsen Schule in Schleswig-Holstein, and Belmond High School, Iowa. Zivildienst (alternative civilian service) with the Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband. I attended the University of Hamburg (First Staatsexamen/MA; PhD) and the University of California at Santa Barbara (DAAD Scholarship).

Following teacher training (Second Staatsexamen/PGCE) and a stint in advertising, I came to England in 1987 as DAAD Lektor at the Leeds Polytechnic from 1987 until 1990. At the University of Leeds, I initially worked as Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of German and as Director of Foreign Language Modules in the Language Centre. I joined the Department of German full-time in August 1999, serving as Head of Department from 2002–2005, as Head of the newly merged Department of German, Russian and Slavonic Studies (GRASS) from 2007–2010, as Director of Student Education for the School of Modern Languages and Cultures from 2011–2014, as Director of Joint Honours Programmes in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies from 2015–2018, and as Digital Education Lead for the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies and Subject Research Leader for German and Russian from 2019–2022. From 2021 to 2024 I served as executive editor of the academic journal literatur für leser:innen. 

Research interests

My research focuses on the complex relationship between political, utopian and fantastic thought. I have a particular interest in Romanticism, the construction and representation of the German Student Movement, German Science Fiction, and in the works of Kurd Lasswitz, Hermann Hesse, Uwe Timm and Gerhard Henschel. I have presented my work at conferences, symposia and colloquia across the UK and in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands.

My Companion to the Works of Hermann Hesse (2009, pbk 2013) sheds new light on the author’s major works, including Siddhartha, Der Steppenwolf, and Das Glasperlenspiel, as well as Roßhalde, Klingsors letzter Sommer, Klein und Wagner, and the poetry. Another six essays explore Hesse's interest in psychoanalysis, music, and eastern philosophy, the development of his political views, the influence of his painting on his writing, and the relationship between Hesse and Goethe. Reviews.

My monograph 'Writing the Revolution. The Construction of 1968 in Germany' (2016, pbk 2020) argues that writing about '1968', in its German context, is no longer about the historical events or the aims and objectives of a by-gone counter-cultural movement, but rather about a moral touchstone, a unique identifier of social groups, and an identity construct, to keep alive a utopian agenda that continues to fire the imagination. It demonstrates that the representation of 1968 as a ‘foundational myth’ suits a number of surprisingly heterogeneous groups, and that even the myth’s deconstruction strengthens it. Most importantly, it shows how a small group of determined writers, intellectuals, journalists and academics have kept ‘1968’ in the foreground of public debate for half a century, thereby ensuring that the experience of this ‘utopian moment’ (Jay Winter) maintains its subversive potential. Read a blogpost about the origins of the book. The book has received excellent reviews in Modern Language Review, German Quarterly, German Studies Review, Journal of European Studies, sehepunkte, and Theory & Event. Hans Kundnani, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, described it as “[A]n illuminating meta-history, not so much about 1968 as about the representation and mythologization of it.” Stuart Parkes, writing in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, declared that “this volume […] confirms the status of the author as a leading British-based expert in the area.”

My latest monograph, 'Beyond Tomorrow. German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries' (2020) explores the question of how humanity can match its technological progress with an appropriate social, ethical and moral progress. In an era in which scientific and technological advances have revolutionised our capabilities to radically alter ourselves and the physical world around us, literary responses have become increasingly dystopian in outlook. They reflect the fears and misgivings about: increasingly porous boundaries (global communication network, virtual realities, national identities, cosmetic surgery); conceptual paradigm shifts (artificial intelligence, quantum physics, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, gender reassignment); and persistent global challenges (climate change, food production and war/terrorism), all of which require a new form of consciousness (cf. Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus). Since the turn of the millennium, German writers have increasingly engaged with the moral and ethical dilemmas created by these challenges. Building on the rich tradition of of German Utopian Thought and German Science Fiction from Kurd Lasswitz (1848-1910) to Carl Amery (1922-2005), they explore in thoughtful and accessible mind-experiments the dangers and limits of our new capabilities, and also the opportunities should we succeed in harnessing the potential inherent in these paradigm changes. Beneath their dystopian guise, these writers attempt Zukunftsbewältigung: valuable strategies that may help us cope with an uncertain but also unwritten future. Read a blogpost about the origins of the book. Reviews: Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung; German Studies Review; Modern Language Review; Monatshefte, German Politics and Society, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and Gegenwartsliteratur. A German Studies Yearbook.

As a follow-on project, Leverhulme Visiting Professor Dr. Lars Schmeink and I worked on New Perspectives on Contemporary German Science Fiction (2022). The volume demonstrates the variety and scope of German science fiction (SF) production in literature, television, and cinema. We argue that speculative fictions and explorations of the fantastic provide a critical lens for studying the possibilities and limitations of paradigm shifts in society. The volume makes clear that German SF is both global and local—the genre is in balance between internationally dominant forms and adapting them to Germany’s reality as it relates to migration, the environment, and human rights. The essays explore a range of media (literature, cinema, television) and relevant political, philosophical, and cultural discourses. Reviews: Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung, seminar : A Journal of Germanic Studies, Science Fiction Studies

I have edited a special issue of literatur für leser:innen on the German writer Gerhard Henschel. Known for his satirical broadsides and his monumental Martin Schlosser collective memory project (currently 10 volumes), Henschel, more than any other German writer, delineates the change from solid to liquid modernity proposed by Zygmunt Baumann: "a translation of the individually faced and privately tackled problems into public, collectively confronted issues and of public interests into the individually pursued life strategies." 

I have just completed work on Hermann Hesse’ Global Impact. Past, Present, Future (2024), edited with Dr Neale Cunningham (Tokyo). The volume contributes to the fields of Hesse Research, German Studies, World Literatures, and Celebrity Studies by exploring Hesse’s literary, cultural, and philosophical impact. It aims to go beyond the well-worn narratives and often stereotypical interpretations of Hermann Hesse as the “outsider”, the “wanderer”, the natural counterpart to Thomas Mann, the guru on the mountain, or the originator of the internet. It seeks to understand, through case studies from around the world, what Hesse meant and continues to mean to readers who often encounter his works in translation and may know little of their cultural, political, historical, and private context, yet somehow find an almost intuitive connection. It seeks to determine what impact his works and his words had, and continue to have, on general readers, educators, literary theorists, writers, film makers, philosophers, ecologists, managers, scientists, and musicians around the world.

Recently completed:

• ‘Hoping against Hope? German Climate Fiction between Dystopia and Utopia’ for Gegenwartsliteratur: A German Studies Yearbook 
• ‘Auf der Suche nach dem Paradies.Naturerlebnis in Hermann Hesses Narziß und Goldmund’ for the Hermann Hesse Tage 2024 in Sils Maria, Switzerland (forthcoming in the Hermann Hesse Jahrbuch 17, 2025)
• ‘Hermann Hesse in the Context of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence’ for the Hermann Hesse in the mirror of two generations symposium in Montagnola, Switzerland 

I am currently working on the following projects:

• an article on Hermann Hesse’s dialogue with his readers
• an article on Hermann Hesse’s parables and fairy tales
• a chapter on Günter Grass and the German Student Movement
• a monograph ‘The Hyperion Connection’ (Hesiod, Friedrich Hölderlin, John Keats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Richard Cowper, Dan Simmons)

• Magister Mundi? Hermann Hesse's Global Impact

Qualifications

• First Staatsexamen (MA) in English, German and Pedagogy
• Second Staatsexamen (PGCE)
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Professional memberships

• Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland
• German Studies Association (USA)
• International Hermann Hesse Society (Calw)
• Scientific Board of the International Center for Protest Research
• Co-Editor of the academic journal literatur für leser:innen (Peter Lang)
• Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung / Association for Research in the Fantastic (Hamburg)
• Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik

Student education

I helped to set up the institution-wide ‘Languages for All’ programme at Leeds which offers general and specialised language tuition from ab initio to advanced level. For many years I taught an innovative lecture course on German current affairs involving task-focused group work and extensive use of a custom-built German news archive. I have coordinated and developed numerous modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including those on language, translation, German Utopian Thought in Fiction and Film, Anglo-German cultural relations, the German student movement, German business, and the novels of Hermann Hesse. I was awarded a grant to develop the German dissertation so that students approach it as a research project in its own right (a forerunner of the Final Year Project). Finished projects were presented at a student-led conference and in an e-journal. I regularly supervise FYPs and Extended Translations for the MA in Advanced Translation Studies.

My module Behind the Headlines. Germany in the 21^st Century, taught and assessed in German, introduces students to the German media discourse and encourages them to critically analyse current events (e.g., the German reaction to Covid 19, Brexit, and the Russian war against Ukraine, as well as the rise of the AfD, the Energy Transition and Climate Crisis) with the help of the latest research and through role plays / simulations, debates and video blogs.

At School level, I contribute to a variety of modules, including world literatures (Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha), audio-visual cultures, comparative literature (Juli Zeh’s The Method), crime and the fantastic (Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire; Andreas Eschbach’s The Hair Carpet Weavers; Maria Schrader’s I’m your Man), protest and resistance (Ulrike Meinhof), social movements (‘1968’ in Germany), and global environmental humanities (Ilija Trojanow’s The Lamentations of Zeno; Tim Fehlbaum’s Hell).

For the 2024/25 session, I will be teaching the module FILM3026 Contemporary German Cinema. This module examines German-language Cinema since 2000, a period when filmmakers have enjoyed success at home and abroad. Students will look at a range of representative films in order to examine the state of the German-language film industries, along with the ways in which contemporary cinema reflects broader cultural, social and political debates.I will also contribute to a new module in the MA in Film Studies: FILM5650M Europe on Screen.

I have been shortlisted for the Leeds University Union Partnership Awards in 2016 and 2021.

Research supervision

I am interested in supervising suitably qualified candidates who want to pursue research in the area of utopian thought, be it political, romantic or fantastic. My particular expertise is in the German Student Movement (“1968”), German Science Fiction from Kurd Lasswitz to Andreas Eschbach and Theresa Hannig, as well as the works and influence of Hermann Hesse.

Completed:

• Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett (Professionalised Protest? Gentrification of Protest in the German Green Party). – PhD 2022
• Neale Cunningham (Hermann Hesse and Japan: A Study in Reciprocal Transcultural Reception) – PhD 2018.
• Adam Roberts (Masks of Fiction. The Function of the Nietzschean Mask in the Works of Hermann Hesse) – PhD 2016.
• Kevin Pike (Removing the Boot-Boys from German Politics. Unconstitutionality Proceedings pursuant to Article 21, Paragraph 2 of the German Constitution: The Case of the NPD) – MA 2003.

Research groups and institutes

• German
• Centre for World Literatures
• German
• History
• Literary studies
• Popular culture

Current postgraduate researchers

• Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett