Zachary Sng is a comparative scholar of British and German romanticism. His reseach and teaching interests extend to critical theory, rhetoric, aesthetics, and literary theory. Some of his recent work has also been in conversation with queer theory and theories of translation, diaspora, and multilingualism.
He joined the Brown faculty in Fall 2004, after having completed his Ph.D. work in Comparative Literature (with a focus on German) at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the University of Konstanz in Germany.
He was born and grew up in Singapore, and studied at Brown as an undergraduate (1990-93) and then a Masters student (1993-94). After Brown, he taught English literature at the high-school level in Singapore before beginning his graduate work.
| Sng, Zachary. "Lessons from Stifter’s Bunte Steine." A Companion to the Works of Adalbert Stifter, edited by Sean M. Ireton, Boydell & Brewer, 2025, pp. 181-199. |
| Sng, Zachary. "On Debt and Community in Tieck's "Der Runenberg." MLN, vol. 139, no. 3, 2024, pp. 472-488. |
| Sng, Zachary. "Reading A Free Life." MLN, vol. 136, no. 3, 2021, pp. 491-499. |
| Khalip, Jacques, Mendicino, Kristina, Redfield, Marc, Sng, Zachary. "Open”." European Romantic Review, vol. 30, no. 3, 2019, pp. 221-222. |
| Sng, Zachary. "Ablative Affinities." MLN, vol. 133, no. 5, 2018, pp. 1233-1253. |
| Sng, Zachary. "Syncretic Sunshine: Metaphor in the Cinema of Lee Chang-Dong." diacritics, vol. 41, no. 2, 2013, pp. 6-30. |
| Sng, Zachary. "Parenthyrsos: On the Medium Which Is Not One." MLN, vol. 125, no. 5, 2010, pp. 1029-1049. |
| Sng, Zachary. "The Poetics of the Middle in Kleist's “Michael Kohlhaas”." The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, vol. 85, no. 3, 2010, pp. 171-188. |
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The Rhetoric of Error from Locke to Kleist. Stanford University Press, 2010.
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"'Inaccurate, as Lady Linguists Often Are': Herodot und Kleist über die Sprache der Amazonen." Penthesileas Versprechen: Exemplarische Analysen literarischer und literaturwissenschaftlicher Referenz, edited by Rüdiger Campe and Bianca Theisen, Freiburg, Rombach, 2008, pp. 61-91.
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"Figure-3: The Metaphor Between Virtue and Vice." Configurations of the Third, edited by Ian Cooper and Bernhard Malkmus, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008, pp. 60-77.
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| Sng, Z. "Labors of Imagination: Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser." Comparative Literature, vol. 60, no. 4, 2008, pp. 389-391. |
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"Das Fehlläuten der Nachtglocke: Zu Kafkas Erzählung 'Ein Landarzt'." Kafkas Institutionen, edited by Arne Höcker and Oliver Simon, Bielefeld, transcript, 2007, pp. 213-34.
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"John Locke." Encyclopedia of British Literature, edited by David Scott Kastan, et. al., new york, new york, Oxford University Press, 2006.
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| Sng, Zachary. "Not Forgotten: On Stifter and Peirce." MLN, vol. 121, no. 3, 2006, pp. 631-646. |
| Sng, Zachary. "The Construction of Lyric Subjectivity in Shelley's "Ozymandias." Studies in Romanticism, vol. 37, no. 2, 1998, pp. 217. |
Dr. Sng's book, The Rhetoric of Error from Locke to Kleist appeared with Stanford University Press in 2010. In it, he explores the relationship between language and understanding through the figure of error, and examines how writers claim to generate knowledge out of and about error in the period between the Enlightenment and Romanticism.
His second book, Middling Romanticism, is a study of moderation, mediation, and other figurations of the "middle" in the 18th century and in contemporary theoretical discussions. Some of the authors that will be examined are Lessing, Kant, Hoelderlin, Kleist, Wordsworth, Adam Smith, Walter Benjamin, and Martin Heidegger. It appeared in the "Lit Z" series with Fordham University Press in 2020.
He is currently completing a book manuscript that has the working title "Romancing the Negative: Reading With / Without Kant."
Other research topics include: rhetoric, visual studies, concepts of community, the sublime, and the uncanny.
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | PhD | The Johns Hopkins University |
| 2002 | MA | The Johns Hopkins University |
| 1994 | BA | Brown University |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Bernstein, Susan | Professor of Comparative Literature, Professor of German Studies |
| Bewes, Timothy | Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities and Professor of English |
| Gooley, Dana | Professor of Music |
| Keach, William | Professor Emeritus of English |
| Khalip, Jacques | Professor of English |
| Mendicino, Kristina | Professor of German Studies, Chair of German Studies |
| Newman, Karen | Owen F. Walker Professor Emerita of Humanities and Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and English |
| Ravindranathan, Thangam | Professor of French and Francophone Studies |
| Redfield, Marc | Florence Pirce Grant University Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Professor of German Studies |
| Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty. Brown University , 2022- |
| Professor. Brown University, 2021- |
| Professor. Brown University, 2021- |
| Associate Professor. Brown University, 2011-2021 |
| Associate Professor. Brown University, 2010-2021 |
| Assistant Professor . Brown University , 2004-2010 |
| ENGL 2761W - The Sublime |
| GRMN 0750E - Reading Film: An Introduction to German Cinema |
| GRMN 0900C - Introduction to German Literature |
| GRMN 1320I - What is an Image? German Aesthetics and Art from Lessing to Heidegger |
| GRMN 1320T - Race in the Age of Reason |
| GRMN 1330C - German Romanticism: Texts, Contexts, Legacies |
| GRMN 1340M - Kafka's Writing |
| GRMN 1340N - Literature and Multilingualism |
| GRMN 1340X - Literature and Multilingualism |
| GRMN 1341A - Kafka (Im)paired |
| GRMN 1341C - Ilse Aichinger: Literatur und Geschichte nach 1945 |
| GRMN 1441H - Goethe Amongst Others |
| GRMN 2661I - German Romanticism |
| GRMN 2661S - What Was A Medium? |
| GRMN 2662D - Decentering German Studies |
