Doomsday and prophecy. The dark big black flower. Myths in the German literature of the present from 1950 to 2000.
Myths are not untruths, which for example have to be unmasked. Rather, myths express the self-confidence of a society and they are the narrative basis of the symbolic order of a state. Myths are constantly changing. There are risks in a myth-hostility, because the deficit of myths in today’s Germany has its price, and this consists in the absence of large narratives that can generate confidence and courage and accompany and secure political reforms. This has surprising consequences, such as a lack of political myths and structural conservatism seemingly go hand in hand. The causes for a fixation on "fantasies in the airfield" - Heinrich Heine in the book of the songs from the year 1827 - became a Dorado of the political mythography, because until 1871 myths and symbols were the only expressions of the belated nation.
Traditional myths such as the Doomsday, Olympus or Prophecy appear in german-language literature of the 20th century as well as myths from everyday contexts such as from the Blue Flower (Novalis) to the Black Flower (Stefan George) or the German Forest and the longing for nature. Myths form a living unity of poetry, philosophy and religion into contemporary literature. Despite its focus on Romanticism as a particularly mythophile epoch, modern poetry continues to obey mythology.
Myths are not untruths, which for example have to be unmasked. Rather, myths express the self-confidence of a society and they are the narrative basis of the symbolic order of a state. Myths are constantly changing. There are risks in a myth-hostility, because the deficit of myths in today’s Germany has its price, and this consists in the absence of large narratives that can generate confidence and courage and accompany and secure political reforms. This has surprising consequences, such as a lack of political myths and structural conservatism seemingly go hand in hand. The causes for a fixation on "fantasies in the airfield" - Heinrich Heine in the book of the songs from the year 1827 - became a Dorado of the political mythography, because until 1871 myths and symbols were the only expressions of the belated nation.
Traditional myths such as the Doomsday, Olympus or Prophecy appear in german-language literature of the 20th century as well as myths from everyday contexts such as from the Blue Flower (Novalis) to the Black Flower (Stefan George) or the German Forest and the longing for nature. Myths form a living unity of poetry, philosophy and religion into contemporary literature. Despite its focus on Romanticism as a particularly mythophile epoch, modern poetry continues to obey mythology.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch