Elisabeth Lenk

Elisabeth Lenk (* 1937 in Kassel ) is a German literary scholar and sociologist .

Life

Elisabeth Lenk studied philosophy, sociology and literature at the University of Frankfurt am Main (with Theodor W. Adorno ) and in Paris (with Lucien Goldmann ). She then worked as an assistant to Helge Pross and Peter Szondi and since 1976 (now emeritus ) professor for literary studies at the University of Hanover .

Lenk's work focuses on the literature of surrealism and the investigation of the connections between literature and dreams. In 1966 she wrote an afterword for the German translation of the study Theory of the Four Movements and the General Provisions of the French Early Socialist Charles Fourier, edited by Theodor W. Adorno . Her preoccupation with Surrealism began with her dissertation Der jumping Narcissus on André Breton , published in 1970 . In 1983, Lenk published the unconscious society, a literary, philosophical and anthropological study on the analogies of aesthetic form and dream form. For the feminist magazine Die Schwarze Botin , founded in 1976 , Lenk has also written texts on femininity and aesthetics, some of which were reprinted in the essay collection Critical Fantasy , published in 1986 . Like the sociologist Rita Bischof , with whom she has worked several times, in her work, in addition to critical theory , Lenk repeatedly refers to the French sociologist Georges Bataille .

After her retirement, Elisabeth Lenk studied the poetry of Rudolf Borchardt , whose volume of poems, Jamben , written in 1935 in Italian exile, was published in 2004 with an afterword by Suhrkamp Verlag.

Fonts (selection)

• André Breton and the abolition of art in surrealism. An art-sociological monograph , Giessen 1970.
• The jumping narcissus. André Breton's poetic materialism , Rogner and Bernhard, Munich 1971.
• The unconscious society. About the basic mimetic structure in literature and in dreams , Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1983.
• Critical Imagination. Collected essays , Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1986.
• Ethics of the aesthetic. Using the example of "acte gratuit". Lecture at the Kunstmuseum Bern on November 26, 1989, Benteli, Bern 1991.
• Elisabeth Lenk, Katharina Kaever (ed.): Peter Kürten, called the Vampire of Düsseldorf , Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 978-3-8218-4156-4 , series Die Other Bibliothek
• Theodor W. Adorno and Elisabeth Lenk: Correspondence 1962 - 1969 , Ed. Text and criticism, München 2001.
• Epilogue, in: Rudolf Borchardt: Jamben, ed. by Elisabeth Lenk, Frankfurt am Main 2004

Web links

• Literature by and about Elisabeth Lenk in the catalog of the German National Library
• Reviews on pearl divers
• Vita to study digital. Teaching research project: Sociology in Frankfurt, University of Frankfurt am Main
• The unredeemed promise of theory , lecture by Elisabeth Lenk 2007 at the Goethe University Frankfurt ( Memento from November 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Charles Fourier: Theory of the four movements and the general provisions . Ed .: Theodor W. Adorno. Translated by Gertrud von Holzhausen. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
2. ^ Elisabeth Lenk: Against the verdict on fantasy as fantasy. In: Dies .: Critical Imagination. Munich 1986, p. 11 f .
3. ↑ Georges Bataille: The Psychological Structure of Fascism. The sovereignty . Ed .: Translated by Rita Bischof, Elisabeth Lenk and Xenia Rajewski. Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1978.
4. ^ Rita Bischof: Sovereignty and Subversion. Georges Bataille's theory of modernity . Ed .: With a foreword by Elisabeth Lenk. Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1984.