Christian Schneider is Assistant Professor of German at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his PhD in German from Heidelberg University in 2007.

His research and teaching interests are in medieval narrative theory, late medieval courtly culture, pre-modern history of thought and knowledge, and textual criticism. He is the author of a monograph on the formation and function of courtly ideals within the literary life of the Habsburg and the Salzburg courts in the 14th century (Hovezuht, 2008). In addition to essays on topics ranging from the concept of “fictionality” in pre-modern literature to late medieval and early modern scientific writings, he has co-edited several essay anthologies. A volume on medieval literary theory (Mittelalterliche Poetik in Theorie und Praxis) appeared in 2009, another volume on Erzähllogiken in der Literatur des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit in 2013. In 2010–2011, Professor Schneider co-curated an exhibition on the Manesse Codex and medieval German love lyric which is documented in Der Codex Manesse und die Entdeckung der Liebe (2010). His current book project is on the logic of storytelling in German narratives from the 12th and 13th centuries. Here he examines how the narrative logic of vernacular literature in this timeframe was shaped by the poetological, audiovisual, and particularly the performative contexts of medieval storytelling.

Professor Schneider has studied in Passau, Norwich, Heidelberg, and Vienna. He was the recipient of a graduate scholarship (2000–2002) and a PhD scholarship (2004–2007) from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). In 2012–2013, he received a Volkswagen Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to work at Washington University in St. Louis. He has received additional research grants from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Since July 2011, Professor Schneider has also headed an editing project on Thomasin’s von Zerklaere Der Welsche Gast. This work is being done within the Collaborative Research Centre 933 (Material Text Cultures) at Heidelberg University, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Research Interests

Medieval and early modern German literature, historical narrative theory and medieval poetics, medieval courtly culture, history of knowledge and science, medieval media and adaptation, textual editing

Fall 2017 Courses

L21 German 210D: Intermediate German: Core Course III
L21 German 520: The Art of Storytelling in Medieval German Literature