Many late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century writers, philosophers, and artists greeted the new medium of the postcard with great enthusiasm. Liliane Weissberg seeks to recapture this enthusiasm and to trace the influence of the postcard on the literary, philosophical, and artistic production of the period. Her book and research will include a chapter on the history of the postcard and its early political impact (focusing on the Dreyfus Affair), as well as chapters on Walter Benjamin, Siegfried and Lily Kracauer, Franz Kafka, Else Lasker-Schüler and others who collected, wrote about, or even created such cards.

Liliane Weissberg studied Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaften at the FU Berlin and received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. After teaching at The Johns Hopkins University, she moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where she is Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in Arts and Science. Weissberg has held Visiting Professorships at numerous universities in the United States, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Her research focuses on German-Jewish Studies, psychoanalytic studies, and cultural theory. Among her awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Graz.