Juergen Hahn Faculty Profile
Juergen Hahn
Lecturer (Spanish and German)
Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
- E-mail: juergen.hahn@csueastbay.edu
Juergen Hahn graduated with a B.A. in Spanish, French and German from the University of Michigan. He received a Ph.D. degree in Romance Languages and Literatures at Duke University. Among the many venues where he has taught are major universities such as Duke University, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. He has taught in all fields and periods of Spanish language, literature, and culture, from early to modern, including Latin American literature. He has also taught German.
Early on in his studies he developed a special research interest in the most important book in all of Hispanic literature, "Don Quijote," and his research has made a key impact on the understanding of the work. This has earned him an international reputation as a Cervantes scholar, and given his publications prominent standing in the scholarly world.
In his various travels and sojourns in Spain and Mexico he has developed a strong emotional bond with the people and their culture, and looks forward to resuming interrupted contacts.
When not teaching, he pursues his various hobbies: Restoring antique cars, handicrafts, fitness, Zen philosophy, learning new languages, and participating in internet discussions of philosophy, literature, and current events in different languages and countries.
His life philosophy is the classic Greek motto: "'Know Thyself’, because knowledge of self is the beginning of all knowledge". This is also the advice he tries to pass on to his students. His favorite teachingmethod is also Greek: The Socratic Method of continuous questioning to promote critical thinking. His most personal concern is to help keep the Liberal Arts truly “liberal,” that is, truly "free”, in the original meaning of the word.
Not teaching this semester.
Books
The Origins of the Baroque Concept of "Pereginatio". (Univ. for North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1973)
Miracles, Duels, and Cide Hamete's Moorish Dissent. Scripta Humanistica, vol 100. (Potomac, MD, 1992)
Journal Articles
" 'El curioso impertinente' and Don Quijote's Symbolic Struggle Against 'Curiositas' ". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. Vol. XLIX (1972). Pp. 128-142.
"The Soldier's Truth and Literary Precept in 'Don Quijote', Part I". Journal of Hispanic Studies. Vol. III (1979). Pp.269-303.
"Grisóstomo's 'Canción desesperada' and Don Quijote's Chivalric Avoidance of 'Desperatio' ". Kentucky Romance Quarterly. Vol. XXIX (1982). Pp. 293-305.
" 'Rinconete y Cortadillo' in 'Don Quijote': A Cervantine Reconstruction". Modern Language Notes. Vol. CXVI (1982). Pp. 211-234.
"Viewing the MLA from the Community College". Academic Questions. Vol.XVI (2003). Pp. 63-69.
Reviews
Manfred Engelbert, El pleito matrimonial del cuerpo y del alma. Kritische Ausgabe und Kommentar. (Hamburg, 1969). In Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. Vol. LXXXVI (1971). Pp. 305-306.
Tilbert Diego Stegmann, Cervantes' Musterroman "Persiles". Epentheorie und Romanpraxis um 1600 (El Pinciano, Heliodor, "Don Quijote") (Hamburg, 1971). In Nueva Revista de Filología Hispanica. Vol. XXII (1973). Pp. 375-378.
Kurt Reichenberger and Rosa Ribas. Ein kryptischer Cervantes. Die geheimen Botschaften im "Quijote". (Kassel, 2002). In Cervantes. Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America. Vol. XXV (2005). Pp. 215-218.
Notes
"An Appeal for Mindfulness". PMLA. Vol. CXIV (1999). Pp. 1111-12.
"The Need for Humanism". PMLA. Vol. CXV (2000). Pp. 1134-35.
"Desforado alegorismo". Cervantes-L Online Blog. (May 21, 2005)
" '¡Qué risa, tía Felisa!' - Coloquio Cervantes". Cervantes-L Online Blog. (November 23, 2005)
"Un esbozo sobre El curioso impertinente ". H-Cervantes Online Blog. (August 15, 2006)
"El curioso impertinente - hijastro y panópticon del Quijote". Cervantes-L Online Blog. (July 9, 2006)
" Quixote - quixote: Filología, ideología, y el doble moro". H-Cervantes Online Blog. (January 27, 2007)
"Cervantes Symposium Pomona 2007: Estudios culturales - un comentario". Cervantes-L Online Blog. (May 8, 2007)
"MLA Conference 2008, San Francisco: De Cervantes y otros asuntos". Cervantes-L Online Blog . (January 22, 2009)
"Cervantine Errors or Design? - Re: Tom Lathop's Point". H-Cervantes Onlne Blog. (March 29, 2009)
" 'Bajtinizar' el Persiles: Re: José Martín Morán, Persiles, Cervantes (2008)". H-Cervantes Online Blog. (June 14, 2009).
"Puede Cervantes salvar la teoria? - Respuesta a William Eggington, New York Times, 9/25/11". H-Cervantes Online Blog. (November 5, 2011)
"Response to William Egginton". Arcade. Online Blog, Stanford University (February, 2013). Also available on ResearchGate.
"Cervantes - ¿importa? o El triunfo de la misología". H-Cervantes Online Blog. (May 4, 2016). Conference Paper for NeMLA, March 2017, Baltimore.