The German-American literary scholar Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht is one of the outstanding intellectuals of our time. His wide-ranging research extends from the history of Spanish literature to questions of our ‘fragile present’.
In his lecture, Gumbrecht addresses the tense relationship between Thomas Mann's novel ‘Der Zauberberg’ (1924) and its rise to literary classic status. The text derives its status as a novel of the century from the idea that it possesses timeless aesthetic value and arouses fascination that is independent of the time it was written and read. However, the novel attempts to depict a historically special world and to view it from the perspective of a different world that followed it.
Gumbrecht takes the 100th anniversary of ‘Der Zauberberg’ as an opportunity to ask fundamental questions about the relationship between literary aesthetics and historical understanding.
Registration is requested.
