Emil Staiger (8 February 1908,

Kreuzlingen Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22,000. ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

- 28 April 1987,

Horgen Horgen is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is one of the larger towns along the south bank of the Lake of Zurich. On 1 January 2018 the former municipality of Hirzel merged into the municipali ...

, Switzerland) was a Swiss historian, writer,

Germanist German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

and Professor of German Studies at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

Life

After graduating from school, Emil Staiger first studied theology before switching to German and classical philology. After studying at the Universities of

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, Zurich and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, he received his doctorate in Zurich in 1932 with a thesis on

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Baroness Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (; 10 January 179724 May 1848), was a 19th-century German poet, novelist, and composer of Classical music. She was ...

. From 1932 to 1934 he was a member of the National Front (Switzerland), from which he publicly distanced himself in 1935. In 1934 he completed his time at the University of Zurich with a thesis on

Schelling Schelling is a surname. Notable persons with that name include: * Caroline Schelling (1763–1809), German intellectual * Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher * Felix Emanuel Schelling (1858–1945), American educat ...

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

and Hölderlin. That same year, he became a private lecturer in German literature at Zurich. In 1943, he was appointed to a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

ship. Staiger's importance in the field of German literature was founded in his widely acclaimed publications ''Die Zeit als Einbildkraft des Dichters'' (1939), ''Basic Concepts of Poetics'' (1946), ''The Art of Interpretation'' (1955) and in his three-volume ''Goethe Studies'' (1952–1959).

Critical style

Staiger's style of literary criticism was opposed to extra-literary concepts such as

positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...

and

intellectual history Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

. For Staiger, concentration on the literary texts themselves was most important. He wrote that “the poet's word, the word for its own sake, is valid, nothing behind it, about or below it". This sensitive interpretation method, often described with the saying “understand what grabs us”, developed into a distinct Germanic style of studying literature. His work, ''The Art of Interpretation'' describes his method of literary criticism.

Influence

Staiger's 11 o'clock lectures, which inspired students from all over Europe as well as the literary public to attend, were spoken about far beyond the University of Zurich. At the same time Staiger was a renowned translator of ancient and modern languages, and translated

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

Tasso TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...

Poliziano Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...

and

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

into

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. As a controversial theater and music critic as well as a columnist, he influenced Zurich's cultural life for decades. He wrote a column for the ''

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (''NZZ''; "New Journal of Zürich") is a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zürich. The paper was founded in 1780. It was described as having a reputation as a high-quality ne ...

'', a Swiss German-language newspaper.

Prizes

* Gottfried-Keller Prize, 1962 *Nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

, 1964 *

Sigmund Freud Prize The Sigmund Freud Prize or Sigmund Freud Prize for Academic Prose (German ''Sigmund Freud-Preis für wissenschaftliche Prosa'') is a German literary award named after Sigmund Freud and awarded by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Ge ...

for scientific prose, 1966 * Zurich Literature Prize, 1966 *

Pour le Mérite The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by Frederick the Great, King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Or ...

for science and the arts, 1966 * Corresponding member of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

, 1971 * Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art, 1975

Notes

External links

Staiger, Emil, entry
in the ''

Historical Dictionary of Switzerland The ''Historical Dictionary of Switzerland'' is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland that aims to take into account the results of modern historical research in a manner accessible to a broader audience. The encyclopedia is publishe ...

''
Staiger, Emil
at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Staiger, Emil 1908 births 1987 deaths University of Zurich faculty Swiss literary critics Swiss philologists German literary criticism Swiss translators People from Kreuzlingen Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy