Seminar "Reading with the New Frankfurt School"

As part of the seminar, two public lectures will also be held, which everyone is welcome to attend (registration is not needed).

For more details

On the 5th of September, from 10:00 to 12:00, there will be a lecture titled “On Resonance”.
What is resonance and why might it constitute a fundamental human value? My talk draws out affinities between Hartmut Rosa’s theories of resonance and novels of academic life by John Williams and Dionne Brand. Both Stoner and Theory capture moments when words come alive; they speak to the transformative aspects of books and ideas, while also reckoning with the alienating aspects of academic institutions. The idea of resonance, I argue, is especially well-suited to capturing the qualities of a humanistic education.

On the 6th of September, from 10:00 to 12:00, there will be a lecture titled “Literature and Life Worlds: Szabo, Schutz, Habermas”.
The idea of the life world has little uptake in literary studies, yet its blend of phenomenological and social meanings seems especially well-suited to capturing life as it is lived. This lecture argues that literature can expand and enrich the accounts of lifeworlds developed by social theorists such as Schutz and Habermas. In Magda Szabo’s The Door, a novel about the relationship between a novelist and her housekeeper, their shared yet conflicting lifeworlds come to the fore. How are intellectuals seen by those who cook their meals and clean their floors?