New German Critique

New German Critique
Title	New German Critique
Discipline	Cultural studies; Political theory; Literary criticism
Language	English
Publisher	Duke University Press
Country	United States
History	1974–present
Frequency	Triannual
Issn	0301-8223

New German Critique

New German Critique is a scholarly journal founded in 1974 that publishes critical theory, cultural analysis, and literary studies with a focus on German-speaking Europe. It engages debates arising from the Frankfurt School, continental philosophy, and postwar German literature through interdisciplinary interventions drawing on translation, historiography, and comparative criticism.

History

The journal was established in the context of transatlantic exchanges between scholars associated with the Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, and émigré intellectuals in the United States such as Herbert Marcuse and Ernst Bloch. Early editorial activity connected academics at institutions including Columbia University, New York University, and the University of California, Berkeley with archives like the German Historical Institute and the Institut für Sozialforschung. Over subsequent decades the journal responded to events and debates involving the 1968 protests, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, German reunification, and the expansion of European integration under the Treaty of Maastricht. Contributors engaged historiographical controversies around figures such as Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, and Hans-Georg Gadamer, while also addressing literary reception of authors like Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Günter Grass, and Ingeborg Bachmann.

Editorial Board and Contributors

Editorial leadership has included scholars and translators affiliated with centers such as the German Studies Association, the Modern Language Association, the American Comparative Literature Association, and departments at Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. Regular and occasional contributors have encompassed historians and theorists including Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin’s commentators, critics of Walter Benjamin’s reception like Susan Sontag, and philosophers in the orbit of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze. The board has featured specialists in gender and queer studies from programs at Rutgers University and Columbia University, scholars of memory and trauma connected to the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, as well as literary critics who have worked on writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Heinrich Böll, Christa Wolf, and W. G. Sebald.

Scope and Themes

The journal foregrounds work on German-language literature and theory alongside comparative studies linking German-speaking contexts to debates about modernity, fascism, and postwar reconstruction. It addresses philosophical lineages from Immanuel Kant through G. W. F. Hegel to twentieth-century Continental figures like Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers; engagements also range to Marxist thought centered on Karl Marx and Marxist revisionists such as Rosa Luxemburg and Lenin in reception studies. Thematic clusters include memory studies tied to events like the Holocaust and the Nazi era, analyses of film and media referencing directors such as Fritz Lang, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and explorations of aesthetics informed by critics like Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin. Interdisciplinary work connects to debates on migration and multiculturalism involving figures from contemporary German politics, as well as to studies of music and opera concerning composers like Richard Wagner and Bertolt Brecht’s collaborations.

Publication and Format

Published triannually by Duke University Press, the journal typically appears in thematic issues and regular issues that combine peer-reviewed essays, translations, archival documents, and critical forums. Formats include long-form essays with extensive archival citation, translated source materials such as manifestos and letters, comparative review essays, and interview transcripts with scholars and practitioners from institutions like the German Studies Association and the Max Planck Society. Special issues often collate work from conference panels held at venues including the Modern Language Association annual meeting, the American Historical Association, and university symposia at Freie Universität Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Reception and Influence

Scholarly reception situates the journal as a central venue for anglophone scholarship on German thought, with influence evident in syllabi at institutions such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, University of Toronto, and University of Melbourne. Its interventions have shaped debates about the legacy of the Frankfurt School, methodological approaches in intellectual history, and the international circulation of German literature and theory, influencing publishers and series at Columbia University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Oxford University Press. The journal’s articles have been cited in scholarship on transitional justice, memory laws in Germany, and cultural policy analyses undertaken by think tanks like the Kulturstiftung des Bundes.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

Noteworthy contributions include dossiers and essays on the reception of Theodor W. Adorno, archival recoveries of texts by Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, and debates on Holocaust memory, German reunification, and migration. Special issues have focused on topics such as the afterlives of German Romanticism; film and media from the perspective of directors like Fritz Lang and Rainer Werner Fassbinder; the philosophical impact of Martin Heidegger and controversies over his politics; and transnational perspectives linking German-speaking Europe to Latin American, African, and East European literatures and intellectual histories. The journal has also published critical forums and review clusters on major works by scholars associated with Jürgen Habermas, Siegfried Kracauer, Ernst Bloch, and contemporary theorists reshaping German studies.

Category:Academic journals