WCGS Book Prize Winner for 2019 - Matthew Birkhold

Seal for 2019 WCGS Book Prize Award

The ݮƵ Centre for German Studies is pleased to announce the winner of its prize for the best first book published in 2019.Characters before Copyright: The Rise and Regulation of Fan Fiction in Eighteenth-Century Germany, written by Matthew H. Birkhold and published by Oxford University Press, was selected from a shortlist of seven excellent academic monographs. The prizeincludesa cash award ofCAD$3,000.

It may come as a surprise to us, but fan fiction was a phenomenon in18th-century Germany, and Birkhold explores the emergence and rapid proliferation of the practice of literary borrowing after 1750. In doing so, he sheds light onseveralinterwoven issues: the nature of publishing and the German book market in the later eighteenth century, the extent and practices of reading and the development of a reading public, and the conventions which developed to define the intellectual property rights of authors, whichultimately ledto the formulation of formal legal codes. The legal and copyright issues surrounding fan fiction in our own day were alsoapparentin the 18th century, but with one singular difference: the idea of copyright was in its infancy, and authors had to find other means to pursue their grievances.

Birkhold’s intriguing investigation of 18th-century German book and literary culture earned the admiration of the award jury. The originality of Birkhold’s “new approachto forgotten, neglected, overlooked material. . . .recovers a thriving literary culture and sees it has doing something really important: debating and creating new norms around what constitutes ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ use.” The jurors thought this “superb” and “brilliant” book also deserved recognition for its ability to make “connections to today’s copyright questions such as Star Wars and Harry Potter.”

Headshot of WCGS Book Prize winner Matthew Birkhold
Matthew H. Birkhold is Associate Professor of German at Ohio State University where he is also Affiliated Faculty in the Moritz College of Law. His teaching and research focus on law, culture, and the humanities. He earned his BA and JD from Columbia University and his PhD from Princeton University. Prior to joining OhioStatehe worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State. In addition to publications in leading academic journals, Professor Birkhold has published invenuessuch asThe Atlantic,The Paris Review,ճ²󾱲ԲٴDzʴDz, andThe New York Times.

The ݮƵ Centre for German Studies takesgreat pridein sponsoring an award that celebrates the dynamic and engaging scholarshipoccurringin all fields of German Studies. The prize isadjudicatedby a jury of German studies scholars chaired by James M. Skidmore, Director of the ݮƵ Centre of German Studies. Members of the jury were Ann Marie Rasmussen (University of ݮƵ), Joachim Whaley (University of Cambridge), and Stephan Jaeger (University of Manitoba). Over 20 books published in 2019 were nominated. In addition to Birkhold’s book, six of the nominated books were named to a shortlist that illustrates the quality and range of German studies today:

  • Kata Gellen.Kafka and Noise: The Discovery of Cinematic Sound in Literary Modernism. Northwestern University Press.
  • Seth Howes.Moving Images on the Margins: Experimental Film in Late SocialistEast Germany. Camden House.
  • Richard N. Lutjens, Jr.Submerged on the Surface: The Not-So-Hidden Jews of Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945. Berghahn Books.
  • Philipp Nielsen.Between Heimat and Hatred: Jews and the Right in Germany, 1871–1935. Oxford University Press.
  • Zef M. Segal.The Political Fragmentation of Germany: Formation of German States by Infrastructures, Maps, and Movement, 1815–1866. Palgrave.
  • Tyler Whitney.Eardrums: Literary Modernism as Sonic Warfare. Northwestern University Press.

Nominations are now open for theWCGS Prize for books published in 2020. Please refer to the eligibility guidelines and nomination procedures for the prize. Nominations must be received by March 31, 2021.Questions and comments may be directed towcgs@uwaterloo.ca.