Gail E. Finney

Gail E. Finney is an American literary scholar and professor emerita of Comparative Literature and German at the University of California, Davis.

She is known for her research in literary scholarship, especially in psychoanalysis, trauma theory, nineteenth- and twentieth-century European literature, and gender studies.

Education and career

She earned her A.B. degree in German summa cum laude from Princeton University and completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.[1] From 1980 to 1988, she taught at Harvard University as assistant and then associate professor of German, later returning in 1997 as a visiting professor.[2]

In 1988 she joined UC Davis, where she served as professor of German and comparative literature until her retirement in 2020. Her administrative roles at UC Davis included assistant vice provost for academic personnel from 1997 to 2000[3] and Faculty Assistant for Academic Personnel to the Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies from 2007 to 2008.[4]

After retiring in December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic; Finney remained active in scholarly, creative, and community pursuits.[5]

She also resumed musical training through piano lessons and became involved in community theater, performing in six productions with the Winters Theatre Company.[6][7] Finney has participated regularly in the Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies in Oakland, where she later joined the board.[4]

Research and scholarship

Finney's research spans psychoanalysis and literature/film, trauma theory,[8] turn-of-the-century European drama, modern drama, the nineteenth-century European novel, feminism, and postwar German women writers.[9][10]

Her scholarship has been supported fellowships from the DAAD, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.[5] She received the UC Davis Distinguished Graduate/Professional Teaching Award in 2007 and the Herbert A. Young Deans’ Fellowship from 2013 to 2016.[4]

Finney's scholarly works include studies in modern literature and cultural analysis. Her works include The Counterfeit Idyll: The Garden Ideal and Social Reality in Nineteenth-Century Fiction;[11] Women in Modern Drama: Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at the Turn of the Century;[12] and the edited volume Look Who’s Laughing: Gender and Comedy.

She has also authored a monograph on Christa Wolf [13][14] and contributed to interdisciplinary cultural studies with Visual Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany: Text as Spectacle.[15]

Selected publications

Selected books

  • Finney, G.E (1984). The counterfeit idyll: the garden ideal and social reality in nineteenth-century fiction. Studien zur deutschen Literatur. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN 978-3-484-18081-9.
  • Finney, G.E (1989). Women in Modern Drama: Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at the Turn of the Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. p. 234. ISBN 9780801499258.
  • Finney, G.E (1994). Look who's laughing: gender and comedy (reprint ed.). Langhorne, PA.: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9782881246456.
  • Finney, G.E (1999). Christa Wolf. New York: Twayne Publishers. p. 142. ISBN 978-0805746228.
  • Finney, G.E, ed. (2006). Visual culture in twentieth-century Germany: text as spectacle. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0253218339.
  • Finney, G.E; Shockey, G.C; Bernd, C., eds. (2011). Ain güt geboren edel man: a Festschrift for Winder McConnell on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik. Göppingen: Kümmerle Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86758-012-0.
  • Finney, G.E (2013). Literature of Fantasy and the Supernatural. Cognella Academic Pub. p. 304. ISBN 978-1621314219.
  • Finney, G.E, ed. (2018-06-01). Wounded: Studies in Literary and Cinematic Trauma. MDPI. ISBN 978-3-03842-936-4.
  • Finney, G.E (2025). From the Roach Motel to the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Amorous Professor. Ardent Publishing LLC. ISBN 9798993818115.

Selected articles

See also

References

  1. ^ Jackman, Alan. "531 Finney interview is with Gail Finney, Professor and Chair Emerita of German and Comparative Literature". Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  2. ^ Downey, Sean C. (2023-12-13). "Opening Doors: Women of the Class of 1973 — Members of the 1746 Society — Reflect on Their Groundbreaking Time at the University". PRINCETON generations. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  3. ^ Rockwell, Susan (1999-07-16). "Murav to Advise Vice Provost on Faculty Diversity". UC Davis. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  4. ^ a b c "Dr. Gail Finney - More than Beer and Lederhosen: Living in Germany in Memorable Times". Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  5. ^ a b Adamski, Kevin (2024-07-10). "Professor Emeriti Gail Finney Interviewed for Emeriti Association's Video Records Project". germanandrussian.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  6. ^ Hewlett, Jim (2020-03-05). "Winters Theatre Company presents 'The Miracle Worker'". Daily Democrat. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  7. ^ Anonymous (2023-03-03). "Share Your Stories | UC Davis Emeriti Association". emeritiassociation.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  8. ^ Finney, Gail (2020-10-01). "Oedipus the King as a Paradigm for Family Trauma Cinema". Journal of Film and Video. 72 (3–4): 64–72. doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.72.3-4.0064. ISSN 0742-4671.
  9. ^ Hart, Jonathan (2006). "The Futures of Comparative Literature: North America and Beyond". Revue de littérature comparée. 317 (1): 5–21. doi:10.3917/rlc.317.0005. ISSN 0035-1466.
  10. ^ "The Reign of the Amoeba: Further Thoughts about the Future of Comparative Literature". stateofthediscipline.acla.org. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  11. ^ Finney, Gail (1984). The Counterfeit idyll: the garden ideal and social reality in nineteenth-century fiction. Studien zur deutschen Literatur. Tübingen: Niemeyer Verl. ISBN 978-3-484-18081-9.
  12. ^ Davis, Tracy C. (1990). "Women in Modern Drama: Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at the Turn of the Century. By Gail Finney. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1989; pp. 234. $27.50". Theatre Survey. 31 (2): 250–252. doi:10.1017/S004055740000939X. ISSN 1475-4533.
  13. ^ Martz, Brett (2016). "A Renewed Look at Christa Wolf's "Neue Lebensansichten eines Katers": Authority, Parody, and Readers as Scientists". The German Quarterly. 89 (4): 411–427. ISSN 0016-8831.
  14. ^ Finney, Gail (1992-07-01). "The Christa Wolf Controversy: Wolf's Sommerstück as Chekhovian Commentary". The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory. doi:10.1080/00168890.1992.9935445. ISSN 0016-8890.
  15. ^ Finney, Gail (2006). Visual Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34718-3.
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