From 1988 until her death, she served as professor of German and comparative literature at the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC).
[2][3] Born in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Barnouw's family became refugees during World War II after Dresden was bombed.
It stopped abruptly; our eyes shut against the heavy rain opened; we looked at the village and knew that it would always have been cut off from the rest of the world.
[3] Barnouw completed her first degree in Germany[5] and in 1962 was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at Stanford University.
[2] This became her first book, Entzückte Anschauung Sprache und Realität in der Lyrik Eduard Mörikes (1971).
[8] Reviewing The War in the Empty Air, political scientist Manfred Henningsen noted Barnouw's "barely contained anger".