Professor Tim Mehigan
German Major
Professor
School of Languages and Cultures
+61 7 336 56935
Researcher biography
Tim Mehigan is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities (elected 2003) and former President of the German Studies Association of Australia (2003-2007). He was Humboldt Fellow at the University of Munich for two years in 1994 and 1995. In 2013 he was awarded the Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. In 2017 he was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholarship.
From 2013 to 2022 Tim has held a guest appointment as Humboldt Prize Winner at the University of Bonn, Germany. In 2017-2018 he was Fulbright Research Fellow in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, USA. Previous appointments include Honorary Professor in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland in 2011-2012.
Tim's work is focused on two key periods in German and European literary and intellectual history: on the one hand, the literature and philosophy of the time of Goethe and Kant, which is to say, the late 18th and early 19th century; on the other hand, the literature and philosophy of Austrian modernism in the first three decades of the 20th century.
Beyond such a focus, Tim is vitally interested in the connections that flow between literature and philosophy and has explored these in relation to writers such as Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) and Robert Musil (1880-1942) and topic areas such as the deployment of space in literature.
Tim has also recently edited two collections devoted to assessing the work of J.M. Coetzee (Camden House, 2011; Camden House, 2018) and published, with B. Empson, the first English translation of K.L. Reinhold's major work of philosophy Versuch einer neuen Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermögens (Walter de Gruyter, 2011). Most recently, with Antonino Falduto (Ferrara), he has edited The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Friedrich Schiller (Palgrave/Macmillan 2022).
Publications
Books
Mehigan, Tim (2020). Robert Musil and the question of science: ethics, aesthetics, and the problem of the two cultures. Rochester, NY, United States: Camden House. doi: 10.2307/j.ctvrdf1b1
Mehigan, Tim (2014). Vereinigungen by Robert Musil. Stuttgart , Germany: Reclam Phillip Jun.
Mehigan, Tim (2013). Robert Musil: drei frauen. Stuttgart, Germany: Reclam.
Reinhold, Karl Leonhard , Mehigan, Tim and Empson, Barry (2011). Karl Leonhard Reinhold: Essay on a new theory of the human capacity for representation: translated by Tim Mehigan and Barry Empson. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Heinrich von Kleist: Writing after Kant. Rochester, N.Y., United States: Camden House.
Mehigan, Timothy J. (2003). The critical response to Musil's "Man Without Qualities". Rochester, NY, United States: Camden House.
Mehigan, Tim (2001). Robert Musil. Stuttgart , Germany: Phillip Reclam Jun.
Mehigan, Timothy J. (1988). Text as contract: the nature and function of narrative discourse in the Erzahlungen of Heinrich von Kleist. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
Book Chapters
Mehigan, Tim (2024). Versuch einer Rekonstruktion von Musils partikularistischer Ethik der Dichtung. Robert Musil in Ostasien. (pp. 232-245) Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. doi: 10.30965/9783846768785_016
Mehigan, Tim (2023). Coetzee and Kafka with Kleist (and Job): Debating the ‘Kohlhaasian Solution’. Heinrich von Kleist. (pp. 160-175) Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004686557_009
Mehigan, Tim (2023). Schiller and Early German Romantics (Kleist, Hölderlin, Goethe). The Palgrave handbook on the philosophy of Friedrich Schiller. (pp. 541-557) edited by Antonino Falduto and Tim Mehigan. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-16798-0_31
Mehigan, Tim (2023). Letters on the aesthetic education (1795). The Palgrave handbook on the philosophy of Friedrich Schiller. (pp. 231-246) edited by Antonino Falduto and Tim Mehigan. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-16798-0_13
Mehigan, Tim (2021). Zur Frage einer politischen Hermeneutik bei Kleist : Am Beispiel der ›langen‹ Diskussion über Recht und Glauben in der Erzählung ›Michael Kohlhaas‹. Kleist-Jahrbuch 2021. (pp. 77-94) Berlin, Germany: J.B. Metzler. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-64174-3_4
Mehigan, Tim (2021). Überlegungen zu einem möglichen „ethischen Weg“ der Kunst „nach Auschwitz“ Am Beispiel von Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks Film Das Leben der Anderen. Wissen über Wissenschaft Felder - Formation - Mutation : Festschrift für Ryozo Maeda zum 65. Geburtstag. (pp. 227-238) edited by Manshu Ide, Haruyo Yoshida and Shizue Hayashi. Tübingen, Germany: Stauffenberg.
Mehigan, Tim and Banki Peter (2021). Goethe's philosophy of nature. The Palgrave Handbook of German Romantic Philosophy. (pp. 375-397) edited by Elizabeth Millán Brusslan. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-53567-4_17
Mehigan, Tim (2020). Bridge Essay: Intimate Life and Romanticism. A Companion to World Literature. (pp. 2163-2168) edited by Ken Seigneurie. Hoboken, NJ, United States: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mehigan, Tim (2019). Posthumanist thinking in the work of Heinrich von Kleist. Posthumanism in the age of humanism: mind, matter, and the life sciences after Kant. (pp. 203-221) edited by Edgar Landgraf, Gabriel Trop and Leif Weatherby. New York, NY, United States: Bloomsbury.
Mehigan, Tim (2018). Introduction: Coetzee's intellectual landscapes. The intellectual landscape in the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 1-21) edited by Tim Mehigan and Christian Moser. Rochester, NY, United States: Camden House.
Mehigan, Tim (2018). J.M. Coetzee on truth, skepticism, and secular confession in "The Age We Live In". The intellectual landscape in the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 25-44) edited by Tim Mehigan and Christian Moser. Rochester, NY, United States: Camden House.
Mehigan, Tim (2017). Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus and the moral image of the world. J. M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus : the ethics of ideas and things. (pp. 165-186) edited by Jennifer Rutherford and Anthony Uhlmann. New York, USA: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781501318658.ch-008
Mehigan, Tim (2016). The scepticism of Heinrich von Kleist. The Oxford handbook of European romanticism. (pp. 256-273) edited by Paul Hamilton. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696383.001.0001
Mehigan, Tim (2016). Musils Essayistik. Der Essay als Universalgattung des Zeitalters: Diskurse, Themen und Positionen zwischen Jahrhundertwende und Nachkriegszeit. (pp. 46-59) edited by Michael Ansel, Jurgen Egyptien and Hans-Edwin Friedrich. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Rodopi. doi: 10.1163/9789004324060_005
Mehigan, Tim (2014). From Kant to Schopenhauer: the philosophical discussion about science in Thomas Bernhard's 'Baroque' novel Das Kalkwerk. Thomas Bernhard. (pp. 67-85) edited by Paul Michael Lützeler, Erin McGlothlin and Jennifer Kapczynski. Tuebingen, Germany: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2014). Nachwort. Robert Musil: Vereinigungen. (pp. 121-143) edited by Tim Mehigan. Stuttgart, Germany: Reclam Phillip Jun.
Mehigan, Tim (2013). Robert Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (1930; 1933). Literatur und Wissen: ein interdisziplinares Handbuch. (pp. 395-400) edited by Roland Borgards, Harald Neumeyer, Nicolas Pethes and Yvonne Wubben. Stuttgart, Germany: J. B. Metzler.
Mehigan, Tim and Corkhill, Alan (2013). Vorwort. Raumlekturen: der spatial turn und die literatur der moderne. (pp. 7-21) edited by Tim Mehigan and Alan Corkhill. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2013). The process of inferential contexts: Franz Kafka reading Heinrich von Kleist. Heinrich von Kleist: artistic and political legacies. (pp. 69-85) edited by Jeffrey L. High and Sophia Clark. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi. doi: 10.1163/9789401210300_008
Mehigan, Tim (2013). Nachwort. Robert Musil: Drei Frauen. (pp. 135-157) edited by Tim Mehigan. Stuttgart, Germany: Reclam.
Mehigan, Tim (2011). The process of inferential contexts: Franz Kafka reading Heinrich von Kleist. Heinrich Von Kleist: Writing After Kant. (pp. 196-226) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, NY, United States: Boydell & Brewer.
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Some thoughts on autopoiesis in view of Kant's "Copernican Turn" and Two Essays by Heinrich von Kleist. Groteske Moderne, moderne Groteske : Festschrift für Philip Thomson = Festschrift for Philip Thomson. (pp. 263-284) edited by Franz-Josef Deiters, Axel Fliethmann and Christiane Weller. Germany: Rohrig Universitatsverlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Der Donnerkeil des Mirabeau: Kleists Entdeckungen nach der Kant-Krise im Gebiete des Bewusstseins. Kleist. Relekturen. (pp. 271-288) edited by Branka Schaller and Roger Fornoff. Germany: Thelem.
Mehigan, Tim and Empson, Barry (2011). Introduction. Essay on a new theory of the human capacity for representation by Karl Leonhard Reinhold. (pp. ix-xxv) Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter.
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Slow Man (2005). A companion to the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 192-207) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, New York, USA: Camden House.
Mehigan, Tim (2011). Introduction. A companion to the works of J.M. Coetzee. (pp. 1-8) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, New York, USA: Camden House.
Mehigan, Tim and Fischer, Bernd (2011). Introduction. Heinrich von Kleist and Modernity. (pp. 1-8) edited by Bernd Fischer and Tim Mehigan. Rochester, New York: Camden House.
Mehigan, Tim (2010). Robert Musil (1880-1942). Praktizierte intermedialitat. (pp. 87-103) edited by Fernand Hörner, Harald Neumeyer and Bernd Stiegler. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2010). Legality as a "Fact of Reason": Heinrich von Kleist's concept of law, with special reference to Michael Kohlhaas. Recht und Literatur. (pp. 153-169) edited by Bernhard Greiner, Barbara Thums and Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum. Heidelberg, Germany: Universitatsverlag Winter.
Mehigan, Tim (2008). The space of perception. Frameworks, artworks, place : the space of perception in the modern world. (pp. 7-26) edited by Tim Mehigan. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi.
Mehigan, Tim (2008). Kleist und die Tiere. Zur Frage des ausgeschlossenen Dritten in dem Trauerspiel Penthesilea. Penthesileas Versprechen: Exemplarische Studien über die literarische Referenz. (pp. 291-311) edited by Rüdiger Campe. Freiburg, Germany: Rombach Verlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2007). Towards another Modernity? Multicultural Discourse in German and Australian Film rom the 1970's to the 1990s. Polyculturalism and Discourse. (pp. 161-176) edited by Anja Schwarz and Russell West-Pavlov. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Mehigan, Tim (2007). "Die kuenftige Schule Europens": Reflections on K. L. Reinhold's Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermoegens (1789). Moderne begreifen: Zur Paradoxie eines sozio-ästhetischen Deutungsmusters. (pp. 311-324) edited by Christine Magerski, Robert Savage and Christiane Weller. Wiesbaden, Germany: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag. doi: 10.1007/978-3-8350-9676-9_23
Mehigan, Tim (2007). The game of the narrative: Kleist's Fiction from a game-theoretical perspective. The play within the play : the performance of meta-theatre and self-reflection. (pp. 405-419) edited by Gerhard Fischer and Bernhard Greiner. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Mehigan, Tim (2007). Post-critical criticism: Robert Musil as an example. Literarische Wertung und Kanonbildung. (pp. 57-70) edited by Nicholas Saul and Ricarda Schmidt. Würzburg, Germany: Verlag Konigshausen & Neumann.
Mehigan, Tim (2007). Literature and the theory of games: Kleist's Verlobung in St Domingo as an example. In(ter)discipline: new languages for criticism. (pp. 188-198) edited by Gillian Beer, Malcolm Bowie and Beate Perrey. Hanover Walk, Leeds, United Kingdom: Legenda.
Mehigan, Tim (2006). Die lage der Germanistik in Australien: Eine Bestandsaufnahme. Tendenzen der Internationalen Germanistik. (pp. 42-51) edited by Axel Fliethmann, Christiane Weller and Stefanie Everke Buchanan. Sankt Augustin: Asgard-Verlag.
Mehigan, TIm (2005). German Studies in Australia: A question of interdisciplinarity. New directions in German studies : a context of interdisciplinarity. (pp. 19-30) edited by Andrea Bandhauer, Bettina Boss, Kerry Dunne, Tim Mehigan, Martina Mollering and Maria Veber. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago.
Mehigan, Tim (2005). Musil mit Luhmann: Das provlem des Vertrauens in Musils Mann ohne Eigenschaften. Musil anders: Neue Erkundungen eines Autors zwischen den Diskursen. (pp. 45-59) edited by Gunther Martens, Clemens Ruthner and Jaak De Vos. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
Mehigan, Tim (2003). Ernest Hemingway und die Deutschen: eine Sonne, die auch aufgeht. Dennoch leben sie. Verfemte Bücher, verfolgte Autorinnen und Autoren. (pp. 135-144) edited by Reiner Wild. Munchen, Germany: Richard Boorberg Verlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2003). "Betwixt a false reason and none at all": Kleist, Hume, Kant and the "Thing in Itself". A Companion to the Works of Heinrich von Kleist. (pp. 165-190) edited by Bernd Fischer. Rochester, NY, United States: Boydell & Brewer.
Mehigan, Tim (2001). Zur Frage der Selbstorganisation des Lebendigen in Goethes literarischem Experiment der "Wahlverwandtschaften". Roman und Asthetik im 19. Jahrhundert : Festschrift für Christian Grawe zum 65. Geburtstag. (pp. 13-31) edited by Tim Mehigan and Gerhard Sauder. Germany: Rohrig Universitatsverlag.
Mehigan, Tim (2000). Amphitryon und das experimentum crucis des Gefuehls. Heinrich von Kleist und die Aufklärung. (pp. 113-126) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, NY, United States: Boydell & Brewer.
Mehigan, Tim (2000). Kleist, Kant und die Aufklaerung. Heinrich von Kleist und die Aufklärung. (pp. 3-21) edited by Tim Mehigan. Rochester, NY, United States: Boydell & Brewer.
Mehigan, Tim (1999). Robert Musil 1880-1942: Vereinigungen. Zwei Erzählungen; Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. Roman.; Nachlass zu Lezeiten. 20.Jahrhundert I. (pp. 323-332) edited by Frank R. Max and Christine Ruhrberg. Stuttgart, Germany: Phillip Reclam Jun.
Mehigan, Tim (1997). Violent orders in Robert Musil's "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften" and Thomas Bernhard's "Kalkwerk". War, Violence and the Modern Condition. (pp. 300-316) edited by Bernd Hüppauf. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110817256.300
Journal Articles
Mehigan, Tim (2024). "Why are we here?" Skirting the philosophical Coetzee. Australian Book Review (462).
Mehigan, Tim (2020). Schiller after Kant: the “unexpected science” of the Briefe über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen. Kant-Studien, 111 (2), 285-302. doi: 10.1515/kant-2020-0018
Mehigan, Tim (2019). Ways of Speaking and Living: A Philosophical Look at J.M. Coetzee. Australian Book Review (April 2019), 26-27.
Mehigan, Tim (2018). Zum multivariaten Korrespondenzprojekt Robert Musils: am Beispiel von Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften und Die Amsel. Doitsu Bungaku, 17 (1) 6, 105-123. doi: 10.11282/jgg.157.0_105
Mehigan, Tim (2016). Einfuhrung und Uberblick. Jahrbuch fur Internationale Germanistik, 47 (2), 81-84. doi: 10.3726/82052_81
Mehigan, Tim (2013). "der ganze Schmutz zugleich und Glanz meiner Seele". Die Briefe Heinrich von Kleists als Teil seines Werks. Monatshefte, 105 (3), 505-507.
Mehigan, Tim (2013). Kakanien als Gesellschaftskonstruktion. Robert Musils Sozioanalyse des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zeitschrift Für Germanistik, 23 (1), 176-178. doi: 10.3726/92138_150
Mehigan, Tim (2010). Art, science and the idea of Europe. Arena Magazine (104), 42-47.
Mehigan, Tim and De Burgh, Helene (2008). 'Aufklarung', freemasonry, the public sphere and the question of Enlightenment. Journal of European Studies, 38 (1), 5-25. doi: 10.1177/0047244107086798
Mehigan, Timothy (2007). Image, body, text: Situating the new German studies. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 43 (4), 379-384. doi: 10.3138/seminar.43.4.379
Empson, Barry and Mehigan, Tim (2007). Shaping space: Notes on the problem of space in art and philosophy. Double Dialogues (7).
Mehigan, Tim (2005). Lessing's Laokoon and the rhetoric of pain. Double Dialogues (6).
Mehigan, Tim (2003). The lie of the land: Nature and society in Goethe's Wahlverwandtschaften. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 75-93.
Mehigan, Tim (2003). Pain and the sublime. Double Dialogues (4)
Mehigan, Tim (1995). Moral und Verbrechen. Einige Gedanken uber Robert Musils intellektuelle Position. Wirkendes Wort, 45 (2), 227-240.
Mehigan, Tim (1993). Whither Gernany? Or, nothing divides people more than unification. Quadrant, 37 (11), 45-49.
Mehigan, Tim (1993). Eichendorff's Taugenichts; or, The social education of a private man. The German Quarterly, 66 (1), 60-70. doi: 10.2307/408510
Mehigan, Tim (1989). Literature and language learning. Vox (3), 54-56.
Conference Papers
Mehigan, Tim (2020). Goethezeit oder Kantisches Zeitalter? Zum Problem literarischer und philosophischer Konvergenzen . Germanistik zwischen Divergenz und Konvergenz Asiatische Germanistentagung 2019, Sapporo, Japan, 26 - 29 August 2019. Munich, Germany: IUDICIUM.
Mehigan, Tim (2012). Technik als Kulturvermittlung? Zur Kulturkonzeption Goethes (in den,, Wahlverwandtschaften") und Robert Musils (im ,,Mann ohne Eigenschaften"). Asian Germanist Conference in Kanazawa 2008, Kanazawa, Japan, 26 - 30 August 2008. Munich, ermany: Iudicium Verlag.
Research Report
Mehigan, Tim (1988). Straw persons and devil's advocacy. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Goethe-Institut.
Data Collections
Mehigan, Tim , Kossew, Sue, Ackerley, Chris, James, David, Attridge, Derek, Marais, Mike, Weigl, Engelhard, Prentice, Chris, Worthington, Kim L., Kelly, Michelle, Drichel, Simone, Meffan, James, Johan, Johan and Clarkson, Carrol (2019). A Companion to the Works of J.M. Coetzee. UQ eSpace. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.774
Mehigan, Tim , Fischer, Bernd, High, Jeffrey, Horn, Anette, Allan, Sean, Greiner, Bernhard, Nobile, Nancy, von Mücke, Dorothea, Pan, David, Schneider, Helmut, Meldrum Brown, Hilda, Schmidt, Ricarda, Chisholm, David, Horn, Peter, Barton, Peter, Gailus, Andreas, Marshall, Jonathan W. and Kittler, Wolf (2019). Heinrich von Kleist and Modernity (UQ306727_other.pdf). UQ eSpace. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.776
Mehigan, Tim, Moser, Christian, Hayes, Patrick, Winkler, Markus, Woessner, Martin, Boletsi, Maria, Stockhammer, Robert, Clarkson, Carrol, Honold, Alexander, Aaltola, Elisa, During, Simon, Attridge, Derek, Attwell, David, Pippin, Robert B. and Leist, Anton (2019). The Intellectual Landscape in the Works of J.M. Coetzee. UQ eSpace. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.775
Mehigan, Tim , Corkhill, Alan, Endres, Martin , Deiters, Franz-Josef , Weber, Philipp , Niehle, Victoria , Milone, Giulia Ferro , White, Michael , Rehm, Stefan , Ledanff, Susanne , Shah, Mirah , Kerscher, Julia , Wagner, Moritz , Gramatzki, Susanne , Kinzel, Ulrich , Irsigler, Ingo and Neubauer-Petzoldt, Ruth (2013). Raumlektüren. UQ eSpace. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.772
Mehigan, Tim , Neumann, Gerhard, Schulz, Gerhard, Stephens, Anthony, Theisen, Bianca, Moser, Christian, Harms, Ingeborg, Blamberger, Günter, Roberts, David, Doering, Sabine, Meldrum Brown, Hilda, Brandstetter, Gabriele , Lü, Yixu and Marquardt, Hans-Jochen (2000). Heinrich von Kleist und die Aufklärung. UQ eSpace. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.771