Dr Udo Borgert

PhD (Sydney), BA (Sydney)
Senior Lecturer
Room 518, Brennan MacCallum Building A18

Phone: +61 2 9351 3293

The focus of my current research is on the history of the motif of the Flying Dutchman. It investigates the earliest sources and then traces its literary depiction over the centuries in the western cultural tradition. So far this has led to the making of a documentary on the Flying Dutchman by the Dutch broadcaster AVRO Television (2003) to which I was a major contributor. I have published a number of books, the most recent was Women’s Words. Women’s Works. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2001.

My teaching covers the major German writers and their works from 1750 to the present. The other area in which I teach is Theatre and Performance Studies.

I am also actively involved as a translator, dramaturge, and assistant director in professional theatre and television productions. These include among others: Georg Büchner, Woyzeck, Downstairs Theatre, Seymour Centre 1987; Felix Mitterer, Visiting Hours, Belvoir Street Theatre 1991; Thomas Baum, Cold Hands, Lighthouse Theatre 1993, Esther Vilar, Isolde and Tristan, Lookout Theatre 1997.

• Contemporary German and Austrian drama;
• Stefan George;
• Georg Büchner;
• Franz Kafka;
• History of the motif of the Flying Dutchman;
• Translation of theatre texts;
• Place, time and discourse deixis in theatre texts;
• German as a foreign language;
• Migration studies (Germans in Australia).

• History of the motif of the Flying Dutchman;
• German migration to Australia.

Books

• A German Reference Grammar. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1976, (2nd edition 1982), (3rd edition, Harcourt Brace, 1991). (with C. A. .Nyhan)
• German in Focus. Sydney: Sydney University Press and Oxford University Press, 1988. (with K. J. Moulden and E. Wolters)
• Moderne deutschsprachige Kurzprosa. Sydney: NSW Department of School Education, 1994. (with Bettina Boss and Anton Winkelmann)
• Women’s Words. Women’s Works. (An Anthology of Contemporary Austrian plays by Women, including a Critical Introduction). Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2001.
• Special Edition Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Conference Papers with Introduction) AUMLA, February 2003. (ed. with J. Clifton-Everest and K. J. Moulden)

Articles

• Kurzinterpretationen in Gero von Wilpert, Lexikon der Weltliteratur, Bd II. Suttgart: Kröner, 1993: Brecht, Die Maßnahme, p. 887; Ganghofer, Schloß Hubertus, pp 1160-1161; Gerstäcker, Die Flußpiraten des Mississippi, p. 384; Kafka, Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, p. 137; Kafka, Ein Landarzt, pp 765-766; Josefine Mutzenbacher. Die Lebensgeschichte einer wienerischen Dirne, p. 658; Sacher-Masoch, Venus im Pelz, p.1375.
• Felix Mitterer, Visiting Hours. (Four One-Act Plays). In: Felix Mitterer, Siberia and other Plays. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 1994, pp 149-202. (with D. Ritchie and G. Ingeborg)
  
  Thomas Baum im Gespräch mit Udo Borgert. In: Modern Austrian Literature, Vol 29, No 2, 1996, pp 101-126.
• Thomas Baum, Cold Hands. In: Richard H. Lawson, New Anthology of Contemporary Austrian Plays. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 1996, pp 75-187). (with D. Ritchie and G. Ingeborg)
• Langenscheidts Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache. (Review Article). In: Muttersprache. Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache, (107), 1997, pp.289-292.
• "Critical Introduction." In: Udo Borgert (ed), Women’s Words, Women’s Works. (An Anthology of Contemporary Austrian plays by Women), Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2001, pp 3 - 49. (with A. Bandhauer),
• Marlene Streeruwitz, New York. New York. In: Udo Borgert, Women’s Words, Women’s Works. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2001, pp 143-196. (with L. Ginters)
• Margret Kreidl, Grateful Women. In: Udo Borgert, Women’s Words, Women’s Works. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2001, pp 237-267. (with L. Ginters)

Teaching

• German literature 1750 – present;
• Theatre studies;
• German language (both junior and senior courses);
• German cultural history.

Supervision

• Past Candidates: On Büchner; on Hölderlin; on George; on Kleist; on Storm; on Mörike; on Hebbel; on Warrior Women in Schiller, Kleist, Hebbel and Grillparzer; on Bachmann; on Celan; on Kafka, on Grass.
• Currently: On Kleist’s prose works, on indentured German labour in Australia, on Baron Karl Alexander Anselm von Hügel.

• Member of organising committee for the Conference commemorating the 250th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Goethes Welt und Werk an der Schwelle zum neuen Jahrtausend, University of Sydney, July 1999.
• Member of organising committee of Towards the Third Millennium: Australia, Europe and Asia. An International Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of Sydney, September 1999.
• Co-organiser of UniForum Deutsch, Goethe-Institute, July 2000.
• Member of organising committee of Diverse Directions in German Studies, University of Sydney, July 2003.

• Foundation President of the German Studies Association of Australia Inc, 2000 - 2003.