On the Trail of Charles Sealsfield

Nicole Perry, Institut für Germanistik, Universität Wien

I am grateful for exposure to a diverse curriculum ranging from Middle-High German, to second-language teaching, to German film, all of which have shaped my thinking and my career.

In October 2010, while still a PhD student, I was offered a post-doctoral position in the Institut für Germanistik at the University of Vienna, to work on the critical edition of correspondences of Austrian American writer, Charles Sealsfield. The terms of the post mandated that I submit my dissertation by the summer of 2011. I duly completed the manuscript and thereupon moved to Vienna in July 2011, returning only briefly to Toronto in the Fall for my oral defense.

My dissertation focused on German representations of Aboriginal characters in the works of three authors, Sophie von La Roche, Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl) and, of course, Karl May. The epilogue focused on contemporary Aboriginal responses to German images of Aboriginal peoples.

I’d like to thank everyone in the German Department for their support during my graduate studies. My Doktorvater, Willi Goetschel, and committee members John Noyes and John Zilcosky were important influences on my academic development. I am grateful for exposure to a diverse curriculum ranging from Middle-High German, to second-language teaching, and German film, all of which have shaped my thinking and my career. A special thank you also to Monika Lang and Martina Kumanatasan for their support, and Professor Emeritus Bob Farquharson and his wife Anne for their hospitality and guidance. It was wonderful to meet a fellow Pentictonite in the big city!

My post-doctoral project has a strongly historical emphasis. Because Sealsfield traveled widely, I conducted research in archives in Berlin, Leipzig, London, Zürich and Philadelphia, to name but a few. I have read and commented on letters not only from Sealsfield, but also men such as Baron von Metternich, Joel Poinsett, and influential publishers such as Johann Friedrich von Cotta, who published many first editions of the works of both Goethe and Herder. At times, the diverse range of letters, many written in Corinth, tested my patience, but they also stretched my research skills and the myriad challenges have ultimately made me a more versatile scholar.

Articles recently completed include one on representations of Aboriginal people in German film, forthcoming in an edited volume with Cambridge University Press, one on Sophie von La Roche and the concept of Erziehung in the American wilderness. Another article on Peter Handke’s 2010 play Immer noch Sturm is in preparation. I recently published a short note on the 1958 version of the film Mädchen in Uniform and will present on the film’s Viennese reception at a symposium in Vancouver in April 2013.

Luckily I have also been able to enjoy Vienna! From the Burgtheater to the Volksoper, and from the Naschmarkt to the Prater, it’s an absolutely wonderful city in which to live and work.