Early wanring that celebrated German poet and essayist Durs Grünbein will be visiting Oxford as Humanitas Weidenfeld Chair in Comparative European Literature in 2018-19.
He joins a long line of distinguished holders of the Chair including: George Steiner, Martha C Nussbaum, Gabriel Josipovici, Amos Oz, Roberto Calasso, Umberto Eco, Nike Wagner, Robert Alter, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sander Gilman, Michele Le Doueff, Wolf Lepenies, Bernard Schlink, Marjorie Perloff, Roger Chartier, James Wood, Ali Smith, Don Paterson, Javier Cercas and Marina Warner
The Weidenfeld Chair in Comparative European Literature is a Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford, and is an established part of the academic year at St Anne's College.
The 2015-16 Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship was held by Dame Marina Warner. Marina Warner is an award winning novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer, who works across genres and cultures exploring myths and stories. Recent work has focused particularly on the magic of fairy tales and the Arabian Nights, including Stranger Magic (2011), and Once Upon a Time (2014). In Fly Away Home: Stories (2015) she draws on mythic predecessors, translating them into contemporary significance. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize, and was also Chair of the judging panel for the Man Booker International Book Prize. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.