Margaret McCarthy
Professor of German Studies
Since arriving at Davidson in 1995, I’ve taught a variety of beginning, intermediate, and advanced courses on German literature, film, and culture. My publications, which have appeared in various anthologies and journals that include German Quarterly, New German Critique, Camera Obscura, and Oxford German Studies, reflect a range of interests in contemporary literature and film. More recently, I have focused on pop literature, editing a de Gruyter volume called German Pop Literature: A Companion (2015).
Currently, my main topic of research is contemporary German feminism. My work in this area includes two essays: “Feminism & Generational Conflicts in Alexa Hennig von Lange’s Relax, Elke Naters’ Lügen, and Charlotte Roche’s Feuchtgebiete,” which appeared in a 2011 issue of Studies in 20th and 21st Century Literature, and “Fractured Legacies and Dialogical Selfhood in Charlotte Roche’s Feuchtgebiete (2008) and Schoßgebete (2011),” published in a 2016 issue of Oxford German Studies. Both articles are part of a book on recent debates in German feminism and their impact on literature and film, forthcoming from Berghahn Books in 2017.
I am currently the coordinator of Davidson’s Film and Media Studies minor, for which I have taught numerous courses in translation on topics like film adaptation, alternative film, and memory on film. In several of my courses, I have completed the final assignment along with students by making my own short films. These include FAHR, a film about my travel experiences and relationship to Germany and Girl, Reconstructed, a mash-up inspired by dreams, memories, and my mother’s early life.
