Largier’s research focuses on historical interactions between literature, philosophy, and theology with a particular interest in the history of affects, the senses, and the imagination. His most recent books explore the relation between bodily ascetic practices, eroticism, and the literary imagination (In Praise of the Whip: A Cultural History of Arousal. ZONE Books, 2007); the fascination of decadent literature with such religious practices (Die Kunst des Begehrens: Dekadenz, Sinnlichkeit und Askese. Beck, Munich, 2007); and the role of a phenomenology of rhetorical effects in the play with figures, images, and figuration in contexts of contemplative practice, erotic play, and literary imagination (Figures of Possibility: Aesthetic Experience, Mysticism, and the Play of the Senses. Stanford UP, 2022). He is currently working on a book on notions of the symbol with a particular emphasis on the connection between the symbol and energetic moments, reaching from Orphic speech and mystical hymns to Ernst Cassirer and Aby Warburg. Other projects involve the history of the demonic and of quietism. – He is affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Programs in Medieval Studies, the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory, and Renaissance and Early Modern Studies.
Niklaus Largier’s work on mystical traditions in German literature and thought, in particular Meister Eckhart and his influence from the Middle Ages to postmodern discourses, has gained wide recognition. His books include a study on time and temporality in late medieval philosophy and literature (1989), a bibliography of literature on Meister Eckhart (1989), a translation and commentary of a medieval treatise on spiritual poverty (1989), a two-volume edition of Meister Eckhart’s works with extensive commentaries in the Deutscher Klassiker Verlag (1993), and a study of the significance of exemplum and exemplarity in medieval literature, philosophy, and historiography (1997). Largier has published essays on Eckhart, Tauler, Seuse, Mechthild of Magdburg, Hadewijch, Rudolf of Biberach, Czepko, and others. More recently, a series of articles dealt with the interaction of images and texts in medieval manuscripts, questions of visual culture, and the significance of exemplarity in various discursive contexts. He has coedited two collections of essays on spirituality and literature (1995 and 1999), and an important medieval collection of vernacular sermons (1998). Largier is a member of the editorial board of the journal Representations, and of the book series New Trends in Medieval Philology (DeGruyter, Berlin) and Deutsche Literatur von den Anfängen bis 1700 (Lang, Bern et al.).
Niklaus Largier is the recipient of a Swiss National Research Foundation Grant (1993/96), of a Fellowship in residence at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities (1992/93), and of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2004). He was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin (2010-11), and at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe BildEvidenz in Berlin (2014). In 2015, Largier received the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation. In 2023, he was the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Technical University in Tbilisi and from the University of Zugdidi, Republic of Georgia.
After studying German Literature, Philosophy, and Russian in Zurich and Paris, Professor Largier received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in 1989. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 2000. From 2001 until 2004 he was the director of UC Berkeley’s Program in Medieval Studies, from 2003 until 2006 the director of the Program in Religious Studies, from 2006-2013 chair of the Department of German, and 2020-2025 chair of the Department of Comparative Literature. Largier was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University (2006), at the University of Konstanz (2013), and at Princeton University (2016).