Department of German

Mary Helen Dupree's teaching and research interests are concentrated on eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century literature and culture, with an emphasis on gender and performance studies. Recent projects have explored such topics as the literary self-depictions of actress-writers from Enlightenment to Romanticism; forms of salon performance such as tableaux vivants and "declamatory concerts" in the early nineteenth century; and responses to Heinrich von Kleist's work on contemporary English-language fiction and drama. Her current research project focuses on on the oral performance of literature in Germany from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, with particular emphasis on the intersection of music and literature.