University professor (emeritus)
Wolfgang F. Schwarz was born in Germany. His academic career has focused on Czech and West Slavic literature, comparative literary studies, cultural history, and Bohemian studies. He is recognized for his scholarship on literary aesthetics, Czech modernism, the Prague School, and cultural relations in Central Europe.
Schwarz studied at Charles University in Prague during 1971–1972. He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) from Saarland University in Saarbrücken in 1979.
Schwarz began his academic career in 1977 as a Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (Research Associate) at Saarland University, where he conducted research and taught Slavic literary studies. In 1987 he became Hochschulassistent (Assistant Professor) at the same institution.
In 1993 he was appointed Professor of West Slavic Literary Studies and Cultural History at Leipzig University. His teaching and research covered Czech, Slovak, and Polish literature, comparative literature, literary aesthetics, modernism, symbolism, the Prague School, and the cultural history of Central Europe.
From 1994 to 1996 he served as Head of the Institute of Slavonic Studies. In 1998 he was Visiting Professor at Charles University in Prague. Between 1999 and 2002 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Philology at Leipzig University. He later became Professor Emeritus.
Schwarz is the author and editor of numerous scholarly books, edited volumes, and articles on Czech and West Slavic literature, comparative literature, literary aesthetics, the Prague School, symbolism, modernism, and Central European cultural history.
Selected publications include:
Prager Schule: Kontinuität und Wandel. Arbeiten zur Literaturästhetik und Poetik der Narration (editor, 1997)
Zugänge zur literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Bohemistik (co-editor, 2019)
His publications are indexed in Google Scholar, WorldCat, the German National Library, and international bibliographies of Slavic studies.
Schwarz held several senior academic leadership positions at Leipzig University, including Head of the Institute of Slavonic Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Philology. His research and editorial work have contributed to the study of Czech literature, West Slavic literary history, comparative literature, and Bohemian studies. In 2013 colleagues and former students honored him with the Festschrift Alteritäten: Literatur, Kultur, Sprache on the occasion of his 65th birthday.
Member of Gesellschaft fuer Bohemistik (vice chairman), Verband der Hochschullehrer fuer Slavistik, Cercle Linguistique de Prague.
