Presentation of the volume Möglichkeit des Romans. Über einen Aufsatz Hans Blumenbergs [Possibilities of the Novel. On an Essay by Hans Blumenberg] with editors Niklaus Largier and Anja Lemke and philosophy historian Nicola Zambon
Hans Blumenberg’s essay “Wirklichkeitsbegriff und Möglichkeit des Romans” (“Concept of Reality and Possibility of the Novel”) is a lasting provocative contribution—not only to the theory of the novel, but also to the theory of realism. Blumenberg asks how we may arrive at a concept of reality when an epoch that uses it pragmatically is still only able to speak of it once it has become fragmented and replaced by a new implicit reality concept. What does this mean for philosophy, literature, and our conception of reality today when we historicize such an approach?
In light of the essay’s new publication in the volume Möglichkeit des Romans (Berlin: August Verlag 2025), the editors Niklaus Largier (University of California, Berkeley) and Anja Lemke (University of Cologne) will talk with Berlin-based historian of philosophy Nicola Zambon (Freie Universität Berlin). The volume’s other authors— Rüdiger Campe, Karen Feldman, Eva Geulen, Joel Lande, and Till Greite—will also be present.
Niklaus Largier is professor at University of California, Berkeley’s Department of German. He was a Fellow in residence at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities and a Guggenheim Fellow. He was director of UC Berkeley’s Program in Medieval Studies until 2004 and director of its Program in Religious Studies until 2006. Recent publications include Spekulative Sinnlichkeit: Kontemplation und Spekulation im Mittelalter [Speculative Sensuality: Contemplation and Speculation in the Middle Ages] (Chronos Verlag, 2018) and Zeit der Möglichkeit: Robert Musil, Georg Lukács und die Kunst des Essays [A Time of Possibility: Robert Musil, Georg Lukács, and the Art of the Essay] (Wehrhahn, 2015)
Anja Lemke is director of the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies, she is the former co-director of the Käte Hamburger-Kolleg “Morphomata. Genese, Dynamik und Medialität kultureller Figurationen” [“Morphomata. Genesis, Dynamics, and Mediality of Cultural Figuartions”]. Since 2023, she is a Regular Visiting Professor at Yale University’s German Department. She edited the volumes »Leib der Zeit«. Ansätze und Fortschreibungen Erich Auerbachs [“Leib und Zeit.” Approaches and Continuations of Erich Auerbach] (Wallstein, 2024) and Theorien des Möglichen [Theories of Possibility] (August, 2021, together with Niklaus Largier) and author of Gedächtnisräume des Selbst – Walter Benjamins “Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert” [Memory Spaces of the Self—Walter Benjamin’s “Berliner Kindheit und neunzehnhundert”] (Königshausen & Neumann, 2005).
Nicola Zambon is a research associate at the Institute of Religious Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. He received his doctorate from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München for his dissertation Das Nachleuchten der Sterne. Konstellationen der Moderne bei Hans Blumenberg [The Afterglow of the Stars. Constellations of Modernity in Hans Blumenberg] (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2017). He is a member of the Käthe Kluth Junior Research Programme “Structures of the Givenness. Phenomenological Approaches to the Entanglements of Object, Nature, and Human Being.” He was a visiting professor for practical philosophy at the Facoltà di filosofia at the University of Turin.