Walter Benjamin was born on July 15, 1892 in Berlin. His family belonged to assimilated Judaism. He studied philosophy, German literature and psychology in Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich and Berlin. In 1915 he met the mathematics student Gershom Scholem, who was five years his junior and with whom he remained friends throughout his life. In 1917 Benjamin married Dora Kellner and had a son, Stefan Benjamin. In the year of his marriage, Benjamin moved to Bern, where he received his doctorate two years later with the work “The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism” (Der Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik). In 1923 and 1924 he met Theodor W. Adorno and Siegfried Kracauer in Frankfurt am Main. The attempt to habilitation with the thesis "The Origin of the German Tragedy" (Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels) at the Frankfurt University failed. Benjamin was advised to withdraw his request, which he did in 1925. His interest in communism led Benjamin to Moscow for several months.
In this seminar, smaller individual texts by Walter Benjamin are read and discussed every week. The first text “The Life of the Students” (Das Leben der Studenten) is from 1914 and the last text “Left Melancholie” (Linke Melancholie) is from 1930. Over a period of sixteen years, fourteen different works by this great thinker were received. This seminar aims to improve knowledge in language and literature with the help of accurate text reading.
In this seminar, smaller individual texts by Walter Benjamin are read and discussed every week. The first text “The Life of the Students” (Das Leben der Studenten) is from 1914 and the last text “Left Melancholie” (Linke Melancholie) is from 1930. Over a period of sixteen years, fourteen different works by this great thinker were received. This seminar aims to improve knowledge in language and literature with the help of accurate text reading.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch
Hermeneutics refers to both the teaching of text interpretation and the philosophical theory of its interpretation. In contrast to a hermeneutic, which interprets the text in general, literary hermeneutics deals specifically with literary texts of fiction, play and poetry. In the aesthetic interpretation, which makes the own symbol system of poetry in contrast to the symbol system of prosaic-scientific texts the object of reflection, literary hermeneutics pursues its goal even more. The interpretation is to be understood as the completion of an experiment.
In this lecture, basic texts by Plato and Aristotle, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey, Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, Otto Friedrich Bollnow and Jürgen Habermas, Otto Pöggeler and Peter Szondi are presented read. All texts are posted on the Moodle platform and can be called up and received from there at any time. They serve as the basis for this lecture and should be applied to literary texts as examples. In this context, a reference to the current theory of transcultural hermeneutics is established.
In this lecture, basic texts by Plato and Aristotle, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey, Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, Otto Friedrich Bollnow and Jürgen Habermas, Otto Pöggeler and Peter Szondi are presented read. All texts are posted on the Moodle platform and can be called up and received from there at any time. They serve as the basis for this lecture and should be applied to literary texts as examples. In this context, a reference to the current theory of transcultural hermeneutics is established.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch
A special epoch in German history is known as Vormärz. The Vormärz is dated to the narrower period from 1830 to the March Revolution in 1848. The term is also used to describe the literature of that time. The rather conservative and dreary Biedermeier epoch existed parallel to the radical democratic Vormärz epoch. The motives of the Vormärz were the demand for equal treatment of all people, a democratic constitution and the freedom of the press, which was then subject to censorship.
The writer, doctor, scientist and revolutionary Georg Büchner (1813-1837) was born into this radical and revolutionary time. He was only twenty-four years old and left German literature with only a few, but all most important, works. In this course the four key texts: The drama “Dantons Tod” (1835), the short prose “Lenz” (1835), the comedy “Leonce and Lena” (1836) and the drama fragment “Woyzeck” (1837). In addition to the literary texts themselves, there will be later adaptations of “Woyzeck” in film, radio play and music.
The writer, doctor, scientist and revolutionary Georg Büchner (1813-1837) was born into this radical and revolutionary time. He was only twenty-four years old and left German literature with only a few, but all most important, works. In this course the four key texts: The drama “Dantons Tod” (1835), the short prose “Lenz” (1835), the comedy “Leonce and Lena” (1836) and the drama fragment “Woyzeck” (1837). In addition to the literary texts themselves, there will be later adaptations of “Woyzeck” in film, radio play and music.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch