McCort joined the faculty of Syracuse University in 1968 as an assistant professor of German.[2] He became associate professor in 1979 and was later promoted to full professor in 2001.[1] He held administrative roles,including program coordinator and associate chair within the Department of Languages,Literatures and Linguistics. He retired from teaching in 2007.[2]
His academic work focused on 19th-century German literature,especially Romanticism,as well as the literary and philosophical traditions of Franz Kafka.[6] He also explored intersections between German literature and Eastern thought,particularly Zen Buddhism,a theme developed in his book Going Beyond the Pairs:The Coincidence of Opposites in German Romanticism,Zen,and Deconstruction (2001).[7]
Research and writing
McCort's scholarship bridges literary analysis,religious studies,and east–west comparative philosophy.[8] His research topics have included the Zen-like qualities of Kafka's fiction,the influence of Rainer Maria Rilke and Zen on J.D. Salinger,[9] and the representation of madness in the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann.[10]
He is the author of several novels,including The Man Who Loved Doughnuts (2015),a comic narrative about academic life;Duncan (2019),described by the author as a "thinking man’s thriller";and The Golden Pot (2022),a modern-day fairy tale.[11]
In 2017,he published A Kafkaesque Memoir:Confessions from the Analytic Couch,a personal reflection on the influence of Kafka on his life and his experiences during a nine-year Jungian psychoanalysis.[12]
His translation of Georg Trakl’s poem Verfall (Decay),retitled Rot,reflects his broader interest in German lyric poetry and its philosophical resonances.[13]
McCort, Dennis (1974). Perspectives on music in German fiction: The music-fiction of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl. German studies in America. Bern, Frankfurt/M: Herbert Lang. ISBN978-3-261-00853-4.
Translated books
Kretschmer, Sibylle; Friedrich Wilhelm (2020). The king's love: Frederick the Great, his gentle dogs and other passions. Translated by McCort, Dennis. Berlin: Palm art Press. ISBN978-3-96258-047-6.
Merkel, Inge; McCort, Dennis; Schneider, Gerd K. (2016). Off the tracks. Studies in Austrian literature, culture, and thought translation series. Riverside, California: Ariadne Press. ISBN978-1-57241-201-9.
Traska, Georg; Lind, Christoph; McCort, Dennis (2013). Hermann Leopoldi: the life of a Viennese piano humorist. Studies in Austrian literature, culture and thought. Biography series. Riverside, Calif: Ariadne Press. ISBN978-1-57241-185-2.
Schneider, Gerd K. (June 15, 2016). Things Could've Been a Lot Worse: The Experiences of a German-American Bellybutton Jew of Berlin Origins. Translated by McCort, Dennis. Hadassa Word Press. p.256. ISBN978-3639794816.
Mitterer, Felix; Martin, Victoria; Lyons, Mike; Drysdale, Patrick; McCord, Dennis (2011). In the lions' den, and The panther. Studies in Austrian literature, culture and thought. Translation series. Riverside, Calif: Ariadne Press. ISBN978-1-57241-180-7.
Mitterer, Felix; Martin, Victoria; Lyons, Mike; Drysdale, Patrick; McCord, Dennis (2011). In the lions' den, and The panther. Studies in Austrian literature, culture and thought. Translation series. Riverside, Calif: Ariadne Press. ISBN978-1-57241-180-7.
↑ "Prep Boys Winners of Scholarships", The Jersey Journal, February 3, 1960. Accessed July 28, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "Thirty one members of the 1959 graduating class of St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City have been extended congratulations by the Rev. Cornelius J. Carr, S. J., principal of the Jesuit high school on notification that they had won New 'Jersey State scholarships. The administrator was informed yesterday the 31 were among 900 high school seniors, and college freshmen who earned stipends. The Hudson County recipients are Matthew Calabro, of Kearny; Dennis McCort, Michael Menditto, and John Reilly, of Hoboken..."
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