John Lyon
School Chair, Charles Smithgall Jr. Institute Chair, and Professor of German
- School of Modern Languages
Overview
John Lyon's research and teaching interests include German literature, philosophy, and culture of the 18th and 19th centuries. He is the author of two monographs: Crafting Flesh, Crafting the Self: Violence and Identity in Early 19th Century German Literature (2006), and Out of Place: German Realism, Displacement, and Modernity (2013); and co-editor of two volumes: Theodor Fontane in the Twenty-First Century (2019) and Gender, Collaboration, and Authorship in German Culture: Literary Joint Ventures, 1750-1850 (2019).
Lyon's articles have appeared in top journals in his field, including Colloquia Germanica, Eighteenth-Century Studies, German Life and Letters, Goethe Yearbook, and Literature and Medicine.
He is the editor of the New Studies in the Age of Goethe book series with Bucknell University Press and co-founder and past chair of the Humanities Council at the University of Pittsburgh.
His current project is a monograph on transnationalism in 19th-century European adultery novels.
- Ph.D. Princeton University, 1997, Germanic Languages and Literatures
- M.A. Princeton University, 1992, Germanic Languages and Literatures
- B.A. Carleton College, 1990, German
Interests
German Romanticism
German Realism
The Age of Goethe
19th-Century German Culture
Indo-European Folktales
German Intellectual History
Postwar Germany and the GDR
German Romanticism
Place and Space
Violence and Identity
19th-Century European Adultery Novels
Transnationalism
History of Medicine
Care in Literature
- German
Courses
- GRMN-3010: Intro-German Literature
- GRMN-3024: Conversation&Composition
- GRMN-6510: Language Practicum
Publications
Recent Publications
Books
Book - Editors
- Gender, Collaboration, and Authorship in German Culture: Literary Joint Ventures, 1750-1850
Date: 2019
- Theodor Fontane in the Twenty-First Century
Date: 2019
Journal Articles
- “Narration and Translation: Advocating for Language Programs at a STEM-Focused Institution.”
In: ALD Bulletin 49 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2026
Journal - Editors
- Theodor Fontane at 200
In: Colloquia Germanica [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2020
All Publications
Books
Book - Editors
- Gender, Collaboration, and Authorship in German Culture: Literary Joint Ventures, 1750-1850
Date: 2019
- Theodor Fontane in the Twenty-First Century
Date: 2019
Journal Articles
- “Narration and Translation: Advocating for Language Programs at a STEM-Focused Institution.”
In: ALD Bulletin 49 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2026
Journal - Editors
- Theodor Fontane at 200
In: Colloquia Germanica [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2020
Chapters
- “‘Anzeigen,’ Supplementarity, and Modernity in Fontane.”
In: Fontanes Medien. Fontane and the Media, Ed. Peer Trilcke. [Peer Reviewed]
Updated: Dec 9th, 2025 at 9:59 PM