Staff profile
Biography
I was Research Fellow at Cambridge (1981), then Lecturer, Fellow and Senior Lecturer at Trinity College Dubln (1982-1998), then Professor at Liverpool (1998-2003), then Professor at Durham (2003-).
My research ranges from the literature and culture of the eighteenth to that of the twenty-first century. It has always been based on the conviction that literary texts are embedded in intertextual and interdiscursive contexts, and has therefore always operated between the disciplines. Having worked for some time in problems of secularisation (generic contamination, discursive collisions), I then worked on the problems of metaphorical cognition in literary and philosophical discourse, on the body in literature, on the liminality of death, and on literary value. I recently completed a book on the productive reception of evolutionism in German literature 1859-2011, and will be editing a volume of Bölsche's biographical writings for the ongoing Wilhelm Bölsche collected works (Weidler Verlag). In this context, I am also an Affiliate of the Institute of Medical Humanities (http://www.dur.ac.uk/cmh/) at Durham.
In the wider University context, I served until September 2017 as an Academic Member of the University Council (http://www.dur.ac.uk/committees/council/membership/current/professor_nicholas_saul/), as a member of the University Finance Committee, and many others. I worked until August 2015 as Co-Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience (https://www.dur.ac.uk/ihrr/). From 2015-2021 I served as Director (Arts & Humanities) of the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Durham (www.dur.ac.uk/ias/).
I was a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung over 1986-1991, a British Academy Senior Research Fellow in 2004, a Christopherson-Knott Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Durham, in 2015, and a Fellow of the Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Universität zu Köln, in 2016. I served as External Examiner for undergraduate degrees at Aston, Nottingham and Trinity College Dublin, and most recently until 2015 at the University of Oxford.
Consulting Hours
Wednesday 11.00-13.00 A43 (term-time)
Research Supervision
I have successfully supervised research students at MA and PhD levels on themes ranging from faith and thought in Matthias Claudius and F.H. Jacobi, to the problem of subjectivity in E.T.A. Hoffmann, gender anthropology in Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), the presentation of masculinity in Karoline von Günderrode, colonialism and identity in German travel writing of the late C19, and myth and technology in Theodor Storm.
I should be glad to supervise new students to MA or PhD level in any area and author of the literature and thought of the Romantic/Classical period, nineteenth-century realisms, and the Jahrhundertwende/Modernism. Themes of current particular interest include anthropology and literature, science and literature (especially literary Darwinisms), and secularisation (especially spiritualism).
Research interests
- Evolutionisms in Germanic culture
- German Orientalism, especially German-Romany relations
- Intertextuality and interdiscursivity
- Literature and science, cognitive humanities, system theory
- Modern German literature, especially Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Wilhelm Jensen, Carl Hauptmann and Wilhelm Bölsche
- Representation of death in literature
Esteem Indicators
- 2021: Präsident, Internationale Novalis-Gesellschaft:
- 2020: Stellvertretender Präsident, ING: Acting President, Internationale Novalis-Gesellschaft
- 2017: Netflix Talking Head: Netflix documentary series talking head
- 2016: Vizepräsident, ING: Election as Vice-President of the Internationale Novalis-Gesellschaft
- 2016: PEGS Best Essay Prize: My essay '‘Vorgänger Darwins’ or ‘Nachfolger Goethes’? Wilhelm Bölsche on Evolutionism in Goethe and Novalis or, Literature and the Two Cultures Then and Now', Publications of the English Goethe Society 84 (2015), pp. 76-91 has just been awarded the prize for best essay in this academic journal over 2015-2016
- 2013: External Assessor: Review of Department of Languages and Cultures, University of Otago
- 2011: Research Excellence Framework (REF) of Hefce: Member of REF Sub-Panel D28 Modern Languages /German, 2011-2014
- 2011: Präsidium, Internationale Novalis-Gesellschaft: Member, Council of the International Novalis Society; Co-Editor, Jahrbuch der Internationalen Novalis-Gesellschaft
- 2010: External Assessor: Wissenschaftsrat, Bewertungsgruppe, Schiller-Nationalmuseum und Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach
- 2009: Editorial Board, PEGS: Member, Editorial Board, Publications of the English Goethe Society
- 2009: External Periodic Reviewer: School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Royal Holloway College, University of London
- 2008: Member, University Council:
- 2007: External Subject Reviewer: External Subject Reviewer (German): School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin
- 2007: Member: AHRC Peer Review College
- 2007: External Assessor: Wissenschaftsrat, Bewertungsgruppe, Schiller-Nationalmuseum und Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach
- 2006: External Teaching Quality Reviewer: for German Department, Birkbeck College
- 2003: Member, Council: of the English Goethe Society
Publications
Authored book
- Saul, N. (2021). Interrogations of Evolutionism in German Literature 1859-2011. Brill Rodopi. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004427075
- Saul, N. (2007). Gypsies and Orientalism in German Literature and Anthropology of the Long Nineteenth Century. Legenda
- Saul, N. (1999). Prediger aus der neuen romantischen Clique. Zur Interaktion von Romantik und Homiletik um 1800. Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N. (1984). Poetry and History in Novalis and in the Tradition of the German Enlightenment. Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
Chapter in book
- Saul, N. (2016). Romantik. In D. Gröttsche, F. Knobb, & R. Parr (Eds.), Raabe-Handbuch : Leben - Werk - Wirkung (348-353). J.B. Metzler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05382-4_72
- Saul, N. (2016). »Vom alten Proteus«/»Der gute Tag«. In D. Gröttsche, F. Krobb, & R. Parr (Eds.), Raabe-Handbuch : Leben - Werk - Wirkung (172-175). J.B. Metzler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05382-4_37
- Saul, N. (2016). Fitness, Nerves, the Degenerate Body, and Identity: Radical Reality and Modernity in Max Nordaus Aesthetics and Fiction. In J. McCarthy, S. Hilger, H. Sullivan, & N. Saul (Eds.), The early history of embodied cognition 1740-1920 : the Lebenskraft-debate and radical reality in German science, music, and literature (211-223). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004309036_010
- Saul, N. (2014). Darwin in German Literary Culture 1890-1914. In T. F. Glick, & E. Shaffer (Eds.), The Literary and Cultural Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe (46-77). Bloomsbury
- Saul, N. (2014). ‘Foundations and Oceans: Monistic Religion and Literature in Haeckel and Bölsche’. In R. Robertson, & M. Engel (Eds.), Kafka, Religion and Modernity (55-70). Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N. (2013). “[…] an entirely new form of bacteria for them”: Contagionism and its Consequences in Laßwitz and Wells. In M. King, & T. Rütten (Eds.), Contagionism and Contagious Diseases in Medicine and Literature 1880-1933 (131-145). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110306118.131
- Saul, N. (2013). Wilhelm Jensen and Wilhelm Raabe: Literary Value, Evolutionary Aesthetics and Competition in the Marketplace. In C. Woodford, & B. Schofield (Eds.), The German Bestseller in the Late Nineteenth Century (58-76). Camden House
- Saul, N. (2013). ‘Gib uns heute unsere tägliche Selbsttäuschung!’ Spiritualism and the Presence of Romantic Poetics in Raabe’s Vom alten Proteus (1875). In D. Göttsche, & N. Saul (Eds.), Realism and Romanticism in German Literature (297-314). Aisthesis
- Göttsche, D., & Saul, N. (2013). Introduction. In D. Göttsche, & N. Saul (Eds.), Realism and Romanticism in German Literatur (9-30). Aisthesis
- Saul, N. (2012). The Dark Side of Modernity: Wilhelm Bölsche, Darwinism, Evolutionary Aesthetics and Spiritualism. In J. Carroll, S. Giles, & M. Oergel (Eds.), Aesthetics and Modernity from Schiller to the Frankfurt School (233-253). Peter Lang
- Saul, N. (2012). “[I]m dunkeln Drange immer auf ein Ziel los”. Wilhelm Bölsche als Darwin-Biograph. In G.-H. Susen, & E. Wack (Eds.), “Was wir im Verstande ausjäten, kommt im Traume wieder”. Wilhelm Bölsche 1861-1939 (343-359). Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N. (2011). “Once in Human Nature, a Thing Cannot be Driven Out”: Evolutionary Aesthetics in Wilhelm Jensen’s The Legacy of Blood (1869). An Early Response to Darwin. In N. Saul, & S. J. James (Eds.), The Evolution of Literature. Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures (239-253)
- Saul, N. (2011). Ektoplasma, Kunst und Begehren. Der spiritistische Roman, der Körper und die moderne Befindlichkeit bei Carl du Prel, Wilhelm Bölsche und Artur Dinter. In C. Arndt, & S. Brodersen (Eds.), Organismus und Gesellschaft. Der Körper in der deutschsprachigen Literatur des Realismus und Naturalismus (1830-1930) (179-210). transcript
- Saul, N. (2011). Die Halbschlafbilder als Öffnung zur terra incognita des Lebens bei Julius Hart: Media in vita. In H. Pfotenhauer, & R. Paulin (Eds.), Die Halbschlafbilder in der Literatur, den Künsten und den Wissenschaften (153-163). Könighausen & Neumann
- Saul, N., & James, S. J. (2011). Introduction: The Evolution of Literature. In N. Saul, & S. J. James (Eds.), The Evolution of Literature: Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures (9-18). Rodopi
- Saul, N. (2010). Introduction to German Romanticism: the National Context. In S. Prickett (Ed.), Reader in European Romanticism (37-41). Continuum
- Saul, N. (2009). Karl Gutzkow. Literatur zwischen Religion und Politik. Probleme der Säkularisation. In A. Bodenheimer, G. Pfleiderer, & B. von Jagow (Eds.), Literatur im Religionswandel der Moderne: Studien zur christlichen und jüdischen Literaturgeschichte (109-125). Theologischer Verlag
- Saul, N. (2009). Love, Liebestod, and Death in German Romanticism. In N. Saul (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N. (2008). 'Landplage'. Draculas Zigeuner und die Anthropologie des Zigeuners im 19. Jahrhundert. In C. Begemann, B. Herrmann, & N. H. (Hg.) (Eds.), Dracula unbound: Kulturwissenschaftliche Lektüren des Vampirs (123-137). Rombach
- Saul, N. (2008). “...ohne Mischung kein Fortgang”. Repräsentation der Zigeuner bei Carl Hauptmann zwischen Anthropologie, Rassenhygiene und Kunst. In H. Uerlings, & I.-K. Patrut (Eds.), Repräsentation – Inklusion – Exklusion. Zur Semantisierung der ‘Zigeuner’ ( 231-246). Peter Lang
- Saul, N. (2008). Das Unbewußte und die Bildbeschreibung bei Wilhelm Jensen. In S. Schneider, & B. Hunfeld (Eds.), Die Dinge und die Zeichen. Dimensionen des 'Realistischen' in der Erzähliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts (333-346). Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N. (2006). “... die schönste Menschengestalt”: The Nature, Culture and Ethnography of Stifter’s Gypsies. In M. Minden, M. Swales, & G. Weiss-Sussex (Eds.), History, Text, Value. Essays on Adalbert Stifter. Londoner Symposium 2003. Jahrbuch des Adalbert-Stifter-Institutes des Landes Oberösterreich (129-140). Land Oberösterreich
- Saul, N. (2006). Fragmentästhetik, Freitod und Individualität in der deutschen Romantik. Zu den Morbiditätsvorwürfen. In K. Feilchenfeldt, U. Hudson-Wiedenmann, Y.-G. Mix, & N. Saul (Eds.), Romantik und Aufklärung. Neue Perspektiven der Forschung. Festschrift zu Ehren Roger Paulins zum 65. Geburtstag (232-251). Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N., & Tebbutt, S. (2004). Introduction: The Role of the Romanies in European Cultures. In N. Saul, & S. Tebbutt (Eds.), The Role of the Romanies: Images and Counter-Images of 'Gypsies'/ Romanies in European Cultures (1-11). Liverpool University Press
- Saul, N. (2004). Half a Gypsy: The Case of Ezra Jennings in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868). In N. Saul, & S. Tebbutt (Eds.), The Role of the Romanies. Images and Self-Images of 'Gypsies'/Romanies in European Cultures (119-130). Liverpool University Press
- Saul, N. (2004). Zum Zusammenhang von Hebbels früher Erzähl- und Reiseprosa: Kunst, Leben und Tod im Übergang zur Moderne. In Hebbel-Jahrbuch (72-89)
- Saul, N. (2004). 'Poëtisirung d[es] Körpers'. Der Poesiebegriff Friedrich von Hardenbergs (Novalis) und die anthropologische Tradition. In H. Uerlings (Ed.), Novalis - Poesie und Poetik 3. Fachtagung der Internationalen Novalis-Gesellschaft (151-169). Niemeyer
- Saul, N. (2003). Keller, Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe. In P. Hutchinson (Ed.), Landmarks in German short prose (125-140). Peter Lang
- Saul, N. (2003). The Reception of German Romanticism in the Twentieth Century. In D. F. Mahoney (Ed.), The literature of German romanticism (327-359). Camden House
- Saul, N. (2002). The Pursuit of the Subject: Literature as Critic and Perfecter of Philosophy, 1790-1830. In N. Saul (Ed.), German philosophy and literature, 1700-1990 (57-101). Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N. (2002). Introduction. German Literature and Philosophy. In N. Saul (Ed.), German Philosophy and Literature 1700-1990 (1-12). Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N. (2002). Goethe the Writer and Literary History. In L. Sharpe (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Goethe (23-41). Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N. (2002). Goethe and Colonialism: The Wanderjahre and Cooper. In N. Boyle, & J. Guthrie (Eds.), Goethe and the English-speaking World. Essays from the Cambridge Symposium for his 250th Birthday (85-98). Camden House
- Saul, N., & Tebbutt, S. (2001). Gypsies, Utopias and Counter-Cultures in Modern German Culture. In S. Giles, & M. Oergel (Eds.), Counter-Cultures in Germany and Central Europe. From Sturm und Drang to Baader-Meinhof (43-60). Peter Lang
- Saul, N. (2001). '…des irdischen Leibes / Hohen Sinn': Modernity, Corporeality and the Trace of Transcendence in Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg). In R. Görner (Ed.), Traces of transcendency : religious motifs in German literaure and thought = Spuren des Transzendenten (109-122). Institute of Germanic Studies
- Saul, N. (1999). Body, Language, and Body Language: Thresholds in Heinrich von Kleist. In N. Saul, D. Steuer, & F. Möbus (Eds.), Schwellen: Germanistische Erkundungen einer Metapher (315-332). Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N., & Möbus, F. (1999). Zur Einführung: Schwelle. Metapher und Begriff. In N. Saul, D. Steuer, & F. Möbus (Eds.), Schwellen. Germanistische Erkundungen einer Metapher (1-7). Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N. (1998). Leiche und Humor. Clemens Brentanos Schauspielfragment Zigeunerin und der Patriotismus um 1813. In N. Saul (Ed.), Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts (111-137). Gebr. Knauer
- Saul, N. (1998). Experimentelle Selbsterfahrung und Selbstdestruktion: Anatomie des Ichs in der literarischen Moderne. In S. Vietta, & D. Kemper (Eds.), Ästhetische Moderne in Europa. Grundzüge und Problemzusammenhänge seit der Romantik (321-342). Fink
- Saul, N. (1997). Aesthetic Humanism. German Literature 1790-1830. In H. Watanabe-O'Kelly (Ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (202-272; 548-555). Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N. (1995). The Romantic Era. In D. Wells, G. Price, S. Parkinson, J. Lindon, & P. Mayo (Eds.), The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies (823-878). Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
- Saul, N. (1995). Das Zweifelhafte menschlicher Verdienste: Arnims Faust-Gestalten. In F. Möbus, F. Schmidt-Möbus, & G. Unverfehrt (Eds.), Faust : Annäherung an Einen Mythos (109-112). Wallstein Verlag
- Saul, N. (1994). The Romantic Era. In D. Wells, G. Price, S. Parkinson, J. Lindon, & P. Mayo (Eds.), The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies (776-824). Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
- Saul, N. (1993). The Romantic Era. In D. Wells, G. Price, S. Parkinson, J. Lindon, & P. Mayo (Eds.), The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies (735-773). Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
- Saul, N. (1993). Helios und Augustinus. Zacharias Werners späte Goethe-Kritik. In P. Skrine, R. Turner, & J. West (Eds.), Connections. Essays in Honour of Eda Sagarra on the Occasion of her 60th Birthday (239-252). Verlag Hans-Dieter Heinz, Akademischer Verlag Stuttgart
- Saul, N. (1991). Predigt und predigende Rede bei Clemens Brentano. Die deutsche literarische Romantik und die Wissenschaften (125-155). Institute of Germanic Studies
- Saul, N. (1991). Nachwort. In N. Saul (Ed.), Die Deutsche Literarische Romantik Und Die Wissenschaften (306-318). Institute of Grmanic Studies
- Saul, N. (1990). Novalis. In W. Killy (Ed.), Literaturlexikon. Autoren und Werke deutscher Sprache (471-476). Bertelsmann
- Saul, N. (1986). Friedrich II und die religiösen Strömungen seiner Zeit. In J. Ziechmann (Ed.), Panorama der Fridericianischen Zeit. Friedrich der Große und seine Epoche. Ein Handbuch (62-67)
- Saul, N. (1985). Hofmannsthal and Novalis. In G. J. Carr, & E. Sagarra (Eds.), Fin de Siècle Vienna : proceedings of the Second Irish Symposium in Austrian Studies held at Trinity College, Dublin 28 February-2 March 1985 (26-62). Trinity College
Edited book
- Saul, N. (Ed.). “Construction der transscendentalen Gesundheit”: Novalis und die Medizin im Kontext von Naturwissenschaften und Philosophie um 1800. Blütenstaub. Jahrbuch der Internationalen Novalis-Gesellschaft. Vol. 5. Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann 2019, 320 pp. Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N., & James, S. J. (Eds.). The Evolution of Literature. Legacies of Darwin in European Cultures. Rodopi
- McCarthy, J., Hilger, S., Sullivan, H., & Saul, N. (Eds.). (2016). The early history of embodied cognition 1740-1920 : the Lebenskraft-debate and radical reality in German science, music, and literature. Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004309036
- Göttsche, D., & Saul, N. (Eds.). (2013). Realism and Romanticism in German Literature/Realismus und Romantik in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. Aisthesis
- Saul, N. (Ed.). (2009). The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N., & Schmidt, R. (Eds.). (2007). Literary Value and Canon Formation in the German Tradition after Postmodernism. Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N., Feilchenfeldt, K., Hudson-Wiedenmann, U., & York-Gothardt, M. (Eds.). (2006). Romantik und Aufklärung. Neue Perspektiven der Forschung. Festschrift zu Ehren Roger Paulins zum 65. Geburtstag. Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N., & Tebbutt, S. (Eds.). (2004). The Role of the Romanies. Images and Self-Images of 'Gypsies'/Romanies in European Cultures. Liverpool University Press
- Saul, N. (Ed.). (2002). Philosophy and German Literature 1700-1990. Cambridge University Press
- Saul, N., Steuer, D., & Möbus, F. (Eds.). (1999). Schwellen. Germanistische Erkundungen einer Metapher. Königshausen & Neumann
- Saul, N. (Ed.). (1999). The Body in German Literature around 1800. Blackwell
- Saul, N. (Ed.). (1998). Clemens Brentano: Zigeunerin. Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts. Gebr. Knauer
- Saul, N. (Ed.). (1991). Die deutsche literarische Romantik und die Wissenschaften. Institute of Germanic Studies
Journal Article
- Saul, N. (online). Poetic Legitimacy after 1848: Keller, Feuerbach and the Mirror of Realism. Oxford German Studies, 302-314
- Saul, N. (online). Morbid? Suicide, Freedom, Human Dignity and the German Romantic Yearning for Death
- Saul, N. (2020). Blüthenstaub: Leben und Mitteilen. Zum Kommunikationsbegriff der Romantik
- Saul, N. (2018). ‚Auf der Kippe stehen‘. Der Vulkanismus als Wissenschaftsmetapher von der politischen zur ökologischen Revolution: Goethe – Jensen – Hohler. Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, 59, 181-196
- Saul, N. (2016). Was für ein Ereignis ist die Evolution? Ereignis und Emergenz in Dietmar Daths „Die Abschaffung der Arten“. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 135(Sonderheft Ereignis erzählen), 217-236
- Saul, N. (2015). ‘Vorgänger Darwins’ or ‘Nachfolger Goethes’? Wilhelm Bölsche on Evolutionism in Goethe and Novalis or, Literature and the Two Cultures Then and Now. Publications of the English Goethe Society, 84(1), 76-91. https://doi.org/10.1179/0959368314z.00000000049
- Saul, N. (2014). ‘…Das normale Weib gehört der Zukunft.’ Evolutionism and the New Woman in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Frieda von Bülow and Lou Andreas-Salomé. German Life and Letters, 67(4), 555-573. https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12060
- Saul, N. (2009). Raabes Geschichte(n): Realismus, Erzählen, Historie, Prähistorie. Jahrbuch der Raabe-Gesellschaft, 50, 22-39. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783484339194.22
- Saul, N. (2005). Hackl’s Abschied von Sidonie and the Romany Holocaust Remembered
- Saul, N. (1999). Introduction. From 'Ideendichtung' to the commercium mentis et corporis: The Body In German Literature around 1800. German Life and Letters, 52(2), 115-122
- Saul, N. (1999). The Body, Death, Mutilation, And Decay In Zacharias Werner. German Life and Letters, 52(2), 255-270
- Saul, N. (1996). Clemens and the Women. Gender, Genre and Madness in Brentano. Publications of the English Goethe Society, 64-65, 161-181
- Saul, N. (1993). Die Kunstthematik in Clemens Brentanos Novelle Die Schachtel mit der Friedenspuppe. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 112, 117-128
- Saul, N. (1992). Romantik und Homiletik: Die Pfingstpredigten Sailers und Schleiermachers
- Saul, N. (1989). E.T.A. Hoffmanns erzählte Predigten
- Saul, N. (1986). The Motif of Baptism in Three Eighteenth-Century Novels: Secularisation or Sacralisation?. German Life and Letters, 39, 107-133. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0483.1986.tb00300.x
- Saul, N. (1982). Novalis’s Geistige Gegenwart and His Essay Die Christenheit oder Europa. Modern Language Review, 77, 361-377