Peter Szondi Institute
Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature | |
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![]() Rust and silver arbor of the Free University |
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Category: | University institute |
Carrier: | Free University of Berlin |
Legal form of the carrier: | Public corporation |
Facility location: | Berlin |
Subjects: | Comparative studies |
Basic funding: | State of Berlin |
Management: | Michael Gamper |
Homepage: | http://www.complit.fu-berlin.de/ |
The Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature Studies (short: Peter Szondi Institute ) is the Institute for General and Comparative Literature Studies (Comparative Literature) at the Free University of Berlin . As the first German-speaking institute of this discipline, when it was founded in 1965, the institute was designed to transcend and modernize the national philologies. Founding professor and later namesake was the Holocaust survivor Peter Szondi .
history
In the summer semester of 1965, Peter Szondi accepted a call to the Germanic Seminar at the Free University of Berlin. According to Jürgen Brokoff, a letter from Szondi to the dean of the Philosophical Faculty dated May 26, 1965 can be regarded as the “founding document” of the seminar (institute from 1972) for general and comparative literature. In it, Peter Szondi asks to rename his German studies chair, the examination subject and the attached seminar to "General and Comparative Literature". Six months later, on December 16, 1965, the board of trustees of the Free University decided to allow the renaming to be granted and the present institute was founded. According to the ideas of the German scholars who were significantly involved in founding the institute , including Eberhard Lämmert , the comparative literature should complement national philology and, above all, show German studies the way to modernization.
The founding of the seminar was directly related to the coming to terms with National Socialism. Gert Mattenklott , later professor at the institute, commented on this point on January 18, 1996 on the occasion of the thirty-year anniversary of the institute: “This institute would not exist without the shame of the history of German philology during fascism. [...] In other words, this institute - whatever it may be - is first and foremost the result of a secession in the history of science. ”In addition, the institutionalization of general and comparative literary studies pursued the goal of methodological and theoretical studies Development of literary studies in the 20th century. Peter Szondi justified the term "General and Comparative Literature" as follows:
To justify my application, I would like to point out that the term “comparative literature” that has been used up to now has only done justice to a sub-area of the discipline for decades. In addition to the historical investigation of the factual connections between national literatures, which was once the only task of the subject, a systematic theoretical endeavor aimed at the entirety of literature has long since been added, which is not aimed at comparing what is different, but at researching what is common. The theory of literature, genre poetics, the history of literary observation, and the sociology of literature have become equal parts of the discipline not only in the American, but also in the long purely historically oriented French school of comparative literature alongside the doctrine of the relationships between national literature. They require an addition in the name of the subject, since the expression "comparative" does not correspond to the intention behind the division into national literature.
According to Eberhard Lämmert in his speech on the 30th anniversary of the institute, the new chair should further develop the tradition of German philosophical aesthetics and literary theory in “confrontations with the modern currents of New Criticism” and the “methods of foreign comparative literature”.
In 1987 there were two professorships at the institute, three in 1997, and finally 3.5 currently. Several professorships are half assigned to other institutes.
From 1979 the institute was located in a villa built by Heinrich Straumer in 1913/14 at Rheinbabenallee 14 in Schmargendorf , from 1983 in a villa built in 1931 by Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot in Dahlemer Hüttenweg, and since 2005 it has been located in the Rostlaube of the Free University .
Professors
The institute's professors included Peter Szondi († 1971), Hella Tiedemann († 2016), Gert Mattenklott († 2009), Eberhard Lämmert († 2015), Winfried Menninghaus , Joachim Küpper , Georg Witte , Irene Albers , Claudia Olk and Michael Gamper.
Visiting professorships
There are three visiting professorships at the institute, which are taken on by writers or translators. The Heiner Müller Visiting Professorship for German-Language Poetics is a poetics professorship funded by the Berlin Literature Prize sponsor , the Prussian Sea Action Foundation.
The Samuel Fischer Visiting Professorship for Literature serves for critical reflection on the literatures of the world together with writers from different cultural contexts. The professorship is held by the Free University of Berlin, the German Academic Exchange Service , the S. Fischer Verlag and the event forum of the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group, with alternating members every semester .
The August Wilhelm von Schlegel Visiting Professorship for the Poetics of Translation is awarded in cooperation with the German Translation Fund and aims at the theoretical reflection of the translation of literary texts.
Well-known alumni
- Michael Angele (journalist)
- Armen Avanessian (philosopher)
- Leo Fischer (satirist)
- Christiane Frohmann (publisher)
- Werner Hamacher (literary scholar)
- Iris Hanika (writer)
- Rafael Horzon (writer)
- Detlef Kuhlbrodt (writer)
- Hans-Thies Lehmann (theater scholar)
- Tobias Lehmkuhl (literary critic)
- Sascha Lehnartz (journalist)
- Thomas Melle (writer)
- Lothar Müller (literary critic)
- Barbara Naumann (literary scholar)
- Monika Rinck (poet)
- Christiane Rösinger (musician)
- Alex Rühle (journalist)
- Robert Stockhammer (literary scholar)
- David Wagner (writer)
Web links
literature
- Irene Albers (Ed.): After Szondi. General and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin 1965–2015. Berlin: Kadmos 2016. ISBN 978-3-86599-322-9
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Brokoff: General and comparative, systematic and historical . In: Irene Albers (Ed.): After Szondi. General and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin 1965-2015 . Kadmos, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86599-322-9 , pp. 22-23 .
- ^ A b Peter Szondi: Letter to the dean of the Philosophical Faculty of the Free University of Berlin from May 26, 1965 . In: Irene Albers (Ed.): After Szondi. General and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin 1965-2015 . Kadmos, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86599-322-9 , pp. 20-21 .
- ↑ Irene Albers: Preliminary remark . In: Irene Albers (Ed.): After Szondi. General and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin 1965-2015 . Kadmos, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86599-322-9 , pp. 9-15 .
- ^ Gert Mattenklott: Speech on the occasion of the institute's anniversary on January 18, 1996 . In: Irene Albers (Ed.): After Szondi. General and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin 1965-2015 . Kadmos, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86599-322-9 , pp. 220-221 .
- ↑ Eberhard Lämmert: A stool for general and comparative literary studies - and what became of it (speech on the 30th anniversary of the institute) . In: Irene Albers (Ed.): After Szondi. General and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin 1965-2015 . Kadmos, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86599-322-9 , pp. 221-226 .
- ↑ Mapping of small compartments ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Martina van de Sand: Dahlem Research School Dahlem Research School at the Free University of Berlin . In: Promotion of young scientists in science . Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-41256-1 , pp. 19-33 .
- ↑ "Suddenly everything was different". Retrieved November 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Website of the Peter Szondi Institute ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Website of the German Translator Fund ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.