February 1, 2004

Oiver Lubrich (FU Berlin) will lead a workshop on "Alexander von Humboldt’s American Travelogues: A Reevaluation of their Literary and Cultural Significance." The workshop will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Dwinelle 3335.

February 1, 2004

Oliver Lubrich (FU Berlin) will give a lecture titled “Are Russian Jews Postcolonial? The End of Identity in Berlin Today” at 4 p.m. in Dwinelle 3335.

February 1, 2004

PhD Student Julie Koser will present a Noon Colloquium talk on "‘Solch eine Tat der Weiber läßt sich denken’: Revolutionary Women and Kleist’s Penthesilea" at 12 p.m. in Dwinelle 5303.

January 5, 2004

Alumna Jennifer Ruth Hosek will give a Noon Colloquium on “Imagining Cuba: German Representations of Exotic Utopia” at 12 p.m. in Dwinelle 3401.

December 1, 2003

CALL FOR PAPERS SEMIOTIC CIRCLE OF CALIFORNIA 2004 The Nineteenth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California will be held in the Faculty Club of the University of California at Berkeley on Saturday, January 24, 2004. Please submit the information below by December 15, 2003, for participation in the meeting. As customary, the meeting will be an open topic research paper meeting. Reservations for housing may be made directly to the Faculty Club at (510) 642-1993/(510) 540-5678 or to the Hotel Durant at (510) 845-8981. NINETEENTH MEETING THE SEMIOTIC CIRCLE OF CALIFORNIA JANUARY 24, 2004 UC BERKELEY _____I wish to…

December 1, 2003

The German Department plans to honor Theodor W. Adorno’s 100th birthday this year with a one-day symposium: Adorno: Exile and Ethics Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall, Townsend Center for the Humanities 9:30 a.m. Opening Remarks – Christina Gerhardt, Berkeley Exile 10:00-11:00 a.m. Martin Jay, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History, Berkeley: “Taking on the Stigma of the Inauthentic: Adorno’s Critique of Genuineness” (Moderator: Anton Kaes, Chair and Professor of German, UC-Berkeley) 11:00-12:00 p.m. Detlev Claussen, Institut für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Universität Hannover: ”Frankfurter Transfer: Adorno between America and Germany” (Moderator: Robert Holub, Professor of German, Berkeley) 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch  Ethics…

December 1, 2003

In conjunction with the Adorno Conference, there will be a screening of the recent Südwestrundfunk documentary on Theodor W. Adorno, “Der Papst der Linken – Theodor W. Adorno” from 7-9 p.m. in Dwinelle 142.

December 1, 2003

The German Film Club presents a night of shorts at 7 p.m. in Dwinelle 153.

December 1, 2003

PhD student Chad Wellmon will present a Noon colloquium talk on “The Language of Cosmopolitanism: Schleiermacher and Romantic Anthropology” at 12:00 p.m. Dwinelle 5303. This paper argues that Schleiermacher’s philosophy of language, when read through his only partially complete translation of David Collins’ travelogue to New South Wales and its accompanying commentary, reveals a growing tension in Germany at the turn of the century between the universalist thrust of Enlightenment cosmopolitanism and the irreducible particularity of local cultures. Schleiermacher’s nascent linguistic anthropology argues for the necessity of a local linguistic identity made possible only through an ever expanding global awareness. For…

November 21, 2003

Yahya Elsaghe (University of Bern) will lecture on “Race and Graphology around 1900: Thomas Mann’s Tristan” in Dwinelle 3335. Like many of Thomas Mann’s early novels and novellas “Tristan” suggests answers to the pivotal question of modern anti-semitism, or rather, offers a calculation whether and how ‘the Jew’ can be identified under any given circumstances. The circumstances under which the possibility of this particular identification is tested are those of virtually perfect assimilation. In “Tristan” the apparently insurmountable identity and alterity of the Jewish body is negotiated by means of graphological details. Like in Ludwig Klages, whose writings Mann probably never…