Friederike von Schwerin-High

Professor of German and Russian; Coordinator of the German Section
Office:
105

United States

United States

With Pomona Since: 2005
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Friederike von Schwerin-High’s research ranges from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Age of Goethe to Thomas Mann. She is particularly interested in translation studies and alterity in narrative and philosophy.

    A constant in her research is the question of how cultures and individuals represent difference to themselves. In Shakespeare, Reception and Translation: Germany and Japan (2004), she examined eight German and four Japanese translations of one Shakespearean text, ranging from the 1760s to today. She found that in each of them the magical world of The Tempest came across as very different in spite of the avowed neutral behavior on the part of the translators. 

    Her other publications include a book translation of Harald A. Innis’s works (Kreuzwege der Kommunikation) and articles on blank verse, G. E. Lessing, Goethe, Thomas Mann, Heinrich von Kleist, Doris Dörrie, and Judith Hermann. In addition, for the past five years she has been the co-editor of the journal Pacific Coast Philology.

    She is currently working on a comparative study of novels that act like biographies and which include works of fiction by Thomas Mann, Natsume Soseki, Christa Wolf, Philip Roth and Orhan Pamuk. 

    Research Interests

    • Translation Studies
    • 20th Century Fictional Biography and Theories of Otherness
    • Goethe
    • G. E. Lessing
    • Intersections in Narrative and Philosophy
    • Shakespeare Reception in Germany and Japan

    Areas of Expertise

    GERMAN STUDIES

    • Age of Goethe
    • Intellectual History
    • Turkish-German Literature
    • Translation Theory
    • Thomas Mann
    • Doris Doerrie
    • Genre Studies
  • Work

    Work

    Monograph

    Shakespeare, Reception and Translation: Germany and Japan. London and New York: Continuum Press, 2004. 253 pp.

    Scholarly articles and book chapters

    “‘Dass ich eins und doppelt bin’. Halbierungen, Doppelungen und Kipppunkte im Theaterstück Katzen haben sieben Leben und seinem intertextuellen Nachleben in Kairos und Kein Roman.” In: Anke Biendarra and Julia Schöll, eds. Jenny Erpenbeck, edition text und kritik, München: 2025, 37-47.

    “Die Natur Lessings den Schriften seines Bruders Karl zufolge.” Jahrbuch der internationalen Achim von Arnim Gesellschaft. Eds. Christof Wingertszahn and Antje Arnold. August 2024. 233-251.

    “Golo Mann’s years at Claremont Men’s College.” In: Thomas Mann’s LA. Edited by Nikolai Blaumer and Benno Hertz. Angel City Press, 2022.

    “Strategies for Teaching 18th-Century German Texts in the Context of Program Building.” Jeffrey L. High, Elena Pnevmonidou and Friederike von Schwerin-High. In: Outreach Strategies and Innovative Teaching Approaches for German Programs. Edited By Melissa Etzler, Gabriele Maier, Routledge 2021. Chapter 8. 118-135.

    “Novels assessing global mobility through the lens and legacy of the GDR.”

    Aftershocks: Globalism and the Future of Democracy [pdf].” ISSEI 2019 Conference Proceedings. Eds. Iván López and Hans J. Rindisbacher. 89-100. June 2021.

    “Ruhestand, Fluchterfahrung und demografischer Wandel in Jenny Erpenbecks Gehen, ging, gegangen und Bodo Kirchhoffs Wiederfahrnis.” Gegenwartsliteratur. Ein germanistisches Jahrbuch. 2020. 293-319.

    “Die Rechtssprache zu und in August Wilhelm Schlegels metrischen Shakespeare-Übersetzungen” [Legal Language around and in August Wilhelm Schlegel’s metrical Shake-speare translations]. Jahrbuch der internationalen Achim von Arnim Gesellschaft. 2018. Eds. Antje Arnold and Walter Pape. 205-222.

    “Der beste Freund als Biograf: Thomas Manns Doktor Faustus und Christa Wolfs Nachdenken über Christa T.Kritische Ausgabe. Zeitschrift für Germanistik und Literatur. Sonderheft: Themenschwerpunkt “Freundschaft.” 131.1 (2016): 35-41.

    “Passionate Patience: Figures of a Unified Europe and a European Germany in Thomas Mann’s Essays.” Images of Europe. Past, Present, Future: ISSEI 2014 - Conference Proceedings. Ed. Yolanda Espiña and Hans J. Rindisbacher. Universidade Católica Editora – Porto. 2016. eBook. 933-942.

    “Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Religious Pluralism in Nathan the Wise and The Fragments Controversy.” Enlightenment and Secularism: Essays on the Mobilization of Reason. Ed. Christopher Nadon. New York: Lexington Books, 2013. Chapter 21. 273-288.

    “Causality and Contingency in Kleist’s ‘Bettelweib’ and Hermann’s ‘Sommerhaus später’.” Heinrich von Kleist. Artistic and Political Legacies. Eds. Jeffrey High and Sophia Clark. Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi, 2013. 197-219.

    “Blank Verse Theater Texts and Weimar Classicism.” Weimar Classicism: Studies in Goethe, Schiller, Forster, Berlepsch, Wieland, Herder, and Steiner. Ed. David Gallagher. Lewiston: Mellen, 2011. 65-97.

    “‘…aber sonst ist es wirklich eine verwandte Geschichte’: Gegenüberstellung von Gegenwart, Geschichte und Gefühl in Unordnung und frühes Leid.Thomas Mann Memoria-Band. Eds. Walter Delabar und Bodo Plachta. Berlin: Weidler, 2005. 67-88.

    “Constructions of Alterity in Doris Dörrie's Film Bin ich schön and in her Book Bin ich schön.” The New Europe at the Crossroads. Ed. Ursula E. Beitter. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 2003. 195-210.

    August Wilhelm Schlegel” (June 2008).

    Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Emilia Galotti(January 2008).

    Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: The Education of the Human Race(February 2008).

    Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Nathan the Wise(January 2007).

    Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Minna von Barnhelm(November 2006).

    Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Miss Sara Sampson(October 2006).

    Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Laokoon(September 2006). The Literary Encyclopedia Online.

    Textbook

    Kaleidoskop. Instructor's Resource Manual. Fifth Edition. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1998. 306 pp.

    Book Translation

    Innis, Harald A. Kreuzwege der Kommunikation. Ed. Karlheinz Barck. Vienna: Springer, 1997. 267 pp.

    Editorial Work

    Pacific Coast Philology: The Journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
    51.1 (Spring 2016): A peer-reviewed journal. Co-edited with Roswitha Burwick, with an Introduction. Penn State UP. 136 pp.

    Pacific Coast Philology: The Journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
    50.1 (Spring 2015): A peer-reviewed journal. Co-edited with Roswitha Burwick, with an Introduction. Penn State UP. 143 pp.

    Pacific Coast Philology: The Journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
    49.1 (Spring 2014): A peer-reviewed journal. Co-edited with Roswitha Burwick, with an Introduction. Penn State UP. 145 pp.

    Pacific Coast Philology: The Journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
    48 (Fall 2013): A peer-reviewed journal. Co-edited with Roswitha Burwick, with an Introduction. Logos Press. 126 pp.

    Pacific Coast Philology: The Journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
    47.1 (2012): A peer-reviewed journal. Co-edited with Roswitha Burwick, and with an Introduction. Logos Press. 129 pp.

    Pacific Coast Philology: The Journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
    46.1 (2011): A peer-reviewed journal. Co-edited with Roswitha Burwick, and with an Introduction. Logos Press. 115 pp.

    Book reviews and review essays

    Herder on Empathy and Sympathy / Einfühlung und Sympathie im Denken Herders (edited by Eva Pirimäe, Liina Lukas, and Johannes Schmidt, Leiden, Brill, 2020) published in special European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms issue (volume 30, issue 6, July 2025) dedicated to the works of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803). July 2025.

    Don’t Forget to Live: Goethe and the Tradition of Spiritual Exercises. By Pierre Hadot, Arnold I Davidson, and Daniele Lorenzini. Translated by Michael Chase. France Chicago Collection. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2023. 2000 words. 2025.

    Georg Forster: German Cosmopolitan by Todd Kontje. University Park, PN: Penn State University Press, 2022. The European Legacy. Oct. 1, 2023. Pp 1-6; 3000 words. 

    The Doctor Faustus Dossier: Arnold Schoenberg, Thomas Mann, and Their Contemporaries, 1930-1951. Edited by E. Randol Schoenberg. Introduction by Adrian Daub. Translated by Adrian Feuchtwanger and Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018. The European Legacy, DOI: 10.1080/10848770.2021.1943831. 17 June 2021. 1800 words.

    Writing to the World: Letters and the Origins of Modern Print Genres by Rachael Scarborough King. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, x + 259 pp. (cloth). The European Legacy. Published online. 25 Feb. 2020. 1600 words.

    The Essential Goethe, by Matthew Bell, editor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016, or. xlii + 1007 pp., $39.95/£29.95 (cloth)” The European Legacy, 22:5 (2017), 631-634. March 2017.

    Metamimesis: Imitation in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Early German Romanti- cism, by Mattias Pirholt, Camden House, 2012, xii+220 pp., Goethe’s Allegories of Identity, by Jane K. Brown, Philadelphia PA, U of Pennsylvania P, 2014, 232 pp. International Romanticism Review. 26:1 (2014): 89-97.

    Thomas Mann in English by David Horton. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Pacific Coast Philology. 51:1 (2014): 137-140.

    Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction by Sherryl Vint.” American Book Review 30:2. Focus Issue on Posthumanism (February 2009): 7-8.

    Berlin and Tokyo – Theater and Capital City [ベルリンと東京 劇 場と場市; Berlin & Tokyo – Theater und Hauptstadt] by Soichiro Itoda. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews (September 2009): 1-4.

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D.
    University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    Master of Arts
    University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    Bachelor of Arts
    Universitaet Heidelberg

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Advanced German
    • Elementary German
    • German Composition
    • Independent Research in German Language & Literature
    • Intermediate German
    • Multicultural Germany
    • Systems of Worldviews