Source: Derek Hillard, 785-532-1922, dhillard@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Megan Wilson, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu
Monday, Dec. 17, 2007
K-STATE MODERN LANGUAGES PROFESSOR EARNS AWARD FOR BEST ARTICLE IN FIELD OF GERMAN LANGUAGE
MANHATTAN -- Derek Hillard, assistant of professor of German in the department of modern languages at Kansas State University, has received the German Academic Exchange Service Article Prize of the German Studies Association.
The award is given to the author of the best article in the fields of German language and literature, cultural studies and humanities to be published in German Studies Review, an international journal, during the past two years. The prize, which included a $500 award, was presented to Hillard by the director of the German Academic Exchange Service at this year's German Studies Association conference.
The article, "Rilke and Historical Discourse or the 'Histories' of 'Malte Laurids Brigge,'" centered on the novel "The Notebooks of Laurids Brigge" by Rainer Maria Rilke, the most famous German poet of the 20th century. The article examines the relationship of the self, or character, and kinds of writing, especially historiography, and the novel.
Hillard said according to the novel, humans rely on literature to develop a self or character.
"I was struck by the way in which the protagonist of the novel seems to identify with an array of complex figures from literature and history," Hillard said. "I wanted to examine how the protagonist uses both these historical figures and premodern types of historical writing to fashion a self in the modern world. It has always fascinated me how history, which purports to deal with the real, and fiction, which does not, depend on each other to do their work."
The committee that nominated Hillard for the prize was unanimous in its appreciation of his work, describing his essay as a "nuanced reading of a literary text and its potential for reflecting on forms of historical discourse" and as an essay that was "firmly grounded in critical theory which informs but does not overwhelm" his original reading, and that Hillard's "lucid and at times powerful rhetoric renders the complexity of his argument accessible."
Hillard joined K-State in 2002. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Washington, and his master's and his doctorate both from Indiana University. During his academic career, Hillard also attended the Eberhard-Karls-Universitat in Tubingen, Germany, from 1988-89, and Freie Universitat in Berlin, Germany, in 1999.