Carl Pletsch, Associate Professor
Teaching
I teach several courses on modern intellectual history on a regular basis. Those courses explore both European and American materials. My courses on the Enlightenment and the Nineteenth Century are offered each year; I also offer follow-up seminars for graduate students on those topics. These courses reflect my research interests as well. I occasionally teach courses on the idea of genius, globalization, the representation of history in film, and the graduate course in historiography.
Research Interests
I sustain a long-term interest in the history and ramifications of the idea of genius. That is a theme of my book on Nietzsche, Young Nietzsche, becoming a Genius, but it is also reflected in my recent essay on Akira Kurosawa. I intend to continue that path in future work.
I am currently working on a book about the origins of the idea or theory of popular sovereignty, including chapters on a number of 17th century thinkers, and prominently featuring John Locke.
Education
Ph.D. Modern European History, University of Chicago, 1977.
M.A. European History, University of Chicago, 1970.
B.A. History and Philosophy, Brigham Young University, 1968.
Selected Publications
Books:
Education in the Information Age, edited with Randall J. Stiles. Colorado Springs, CO: United States Air Force Academy Publications, 1997.
Beyond Preservation: Restoring and Inventing Landscapes, edited with Dwight Baldwin and Judith DeLuce. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Young Nietzsche, Becoming a Genius. New York: The Free Press (Macmillan), 1991.
Introspection in Biography: Psychological Dimensions of the Biographic Process, edited with Samuel H. Baron. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1985.
Articles/Essays/Chapters:
“Akira Kurosawa’s Reflection on Becoming a Genius in Yume,” The Journal of Popular Film & Television. Vol. 32, #4 (Winter, 2005), pp. 192-199.
“Rehabilitating Myth, Carefully,” The European Legacy. Vol. 9, #5 (2004), pp. 655-657.
“Class, Nationalism and Identity Politics.” Peace Review. Vol. 11, #2 (June, 1999), pp. 197-202.
“Nietzsche’s Striving.” Nietzsche and Depth Psychology. Albany, NY: State University Press of New York, 1999, pp. 331-341.
“`Civil Society’ and Rousseau’s Place in the Social Contract Tradition.” The European Legacy, Vol. 1 (1996), pp. 322-328
"Introduction: Ecological Preservation versus Restoration," Beyond Preservation: Restoring and Inventing Landscapes, pp. 3-16
"Humans Assert Sovereignty over Nature." Beyond Preservation, pp. 85-90.
"Conclusion: Constructing a new Ecological Paradigm," Beyond Preservation, pp. 260-265.
"Regimes of Nature," The Humanist, 53, #6 (1993), pp. 3-8.
"Textual Politics in Locke's Two Treatises of Government," in Gordon J. Schochet, ed., Restoration, Ideology, and Revolution. Proceedings of the Folger Institute Center for the History of British Political Thought, Vol. 4. (Washington, DC: The Folger Institute, 1990), pp. 105‑147.
"Freud's `Specimen Dream,'" Partisan Review, 54, #2 (1987), 305‑320.
"On the Autobiographical Life of Nietzsche," in Psychoanalytic Studies of Biography (New York: International Universities Press, 1987), 405‑434.
"Epilogue," Introspection in Biography, 1985.
"Returning to Nietzsche," Introspection in Biography, 1985.
"The Self‑Sufficient Text in Nietzsche and Kierkegaard," Yale French Studies, #66 (1984), 160‑188.
"Freud's Case Studies and the Locus of Psychoanalytic Knowledge," Dynamis, 2 (1982), 463‑497.
"The Three Worlds, or the Division of Social Scientific Labor, circa 1950‑1975," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23 (1981), 565‑590.
"A Note on the Adaptation of the Psychoanalytic Method to the Study of Historical Personalities," The Psychohistory Review, 9 (1981), 46‑50.
"Freud's Case Histories," Partisan Review, 44, (1981), 101‑118.
"History and Innovation," with Richard Shiff, Critical Inquiry, 7 (1981), 634‑638.
"`The Socialist Nation of the German Democratic Republic,' or the Asymmetry in Nation and Ideology between the Two Germanies," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21 (1979), 323‑345.
"GDR Research," New German Critique, #16 (1979), 157‑161.
"A Psychoanalytic Contribution to Method in Biography," with George Moraitis, The Psychohistory Review, 8 (1979), 72‑74.
"History and Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy of Time," History and Theory, 16 (1977), 30‑39.
"Nietzsches Philosophie der Zeit und die Geschichte," Saeculum, Jahrbuch für Universalgeschichte, 24 (1973), 41‑49.
Book reviews and conference presentations omitted.