180057 SE Philosophie, Kunst, Holocaust (2021S)

The seminar provides forays into the constellation of philosophy, art, and the Holocaust. In this context, texts by Theodor W. Adorno, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jacques Derrida, Georges Didi-Huberman, and Jacques Ranciere will be read and analyzed; additionally, close attention will be paid to the ways in which poets and artists such as Paul Celan, Arnold Schönberg, Anselm Kiefer, and Christian Boltanski figure in the thinking of those philosophers. The course consists of one preliminary meeting and seven seminar sessions. While the first seminar session examines sections from Adorno’s “Negative Dialectics” and from Lacoue-Labarthe’s “Heidegger, Art, Politics”, the second seminar session addresses the question of literature “after” Auschwitz. The third seminar session closely reads two texts by Adorno and Lacoue-Labarthe on Schönberg’s opera “Moses and Aron”. The fourth seminar session analyses two texts by Derrida on Paul Celan. The fifth seminar session examines Lacoue-Labarthe’s book on Paul Celan and, in addition, some paintings by Anselm Kiefer. The sixth seminar session analyses both Didi-Huberman’s reflections on the relation between (photographic) image and Auschwitz and a text by Ranciere on the question of the representability of Auschwitz. The last session addresses another text by Rand certain artworks by Christian Boltanski.
The seminar will consist of presentations and class discussion. All texts (and artworks) to be discussed will be made available on Moodle. Participants are expected to come fully prepared, to have closely read the respective texts, and to engage in class discussion.
Office hours (by individual appointment) will be held via video tools.