Helga W. Kraft

Helga W. Kraft (born in Berlin, Germany), is a German-American Professor of Germanic Studies, Emerita.

She pursued German Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and obtained the Ph.D. in 1970.

In addition to scholarly research and teaching (she received Teacher of the Year award twice), she organised teacher workshops, established various faculty and student exchange programs with German universities, and promoted German culture in the US through initiating conferences, film series, exhibits, and lectures.

She worked with the Goethe Institut and German Consulates in New York, Chicago and Atlanta and received an Award for Distinguished Service in the International Field from the German Consulate, Atlanta.

After her official retirement in 2010 she moved to Berlin, Germany, where she now continues her research.

Focus on (1) general Germanic studies, i.e. books and articles on Goethe, Kleist, and Canetti; (2) drama of German speaking countries, i.e. books and articles on women dramatists and plays, xenophobia on the German stage; (3) gender theory and women’s studies, i.e. articles and book chapters on Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, Ida Hahn-Hahn, Elsa Bernstein, Elisabeth Langgässer, Ingeborg Drewitz, Christa Wolf, Gerlind Reinshagen, Elfriede Jelinek, Marlene Streeruwitz, Herta Müller.

(4) Applied linguistics, i.e. a basic German textbook for U.S. college students, articles on teaching methodology.

Representations of World War II Refugee Experiences in Memoirs, Fiction, and Film.

Coeditor Martha Wallach, Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press, 2012.

Coeditor: Therese Hoernigk, Berlin: Verlag Theater der Zeit, 2007.

Coeditor Barbara Kosta, Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi Press, 2003.

[4] Ein Haus aus Sprache: Dramatikerinnen und das andere Theater, Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag, 1996, 248 pp.

Coeditor: Elke Liebs, Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag 1993, 346 pp.

[7] Auf Deutsch, Kompetenz durch kommunikatives Lernen A First Year College Text.

Recent articles and chapter "Xenophobia and the Stranger as Vampire in Efriede Jelinek‘s and Nikolas Mahler‘s „Der fremde!

schreibt Kafka neu.“ Journal of Austrian Studies", Volume 55, Number 1 , 2022, pp. 25–51.

Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Moritz Stetters Das Urteil.“ Colloquia Germanica, Vol.

Der imaginierte Mann im Werk von Film- und Buchautorinnen.

"Goethes Farbenlehre und Das Märchen -- Farbmagie oder -wissenschaft?“ In: Die Farben imaginierter Welten, Zur Kulturgeschichte ihrer Codierung in Literatur und Kunst vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart.