Events
31 May 2023
Wednesday lecture
Deuten deuten. Philologie, Hermeneutik und die Entstehung der Geisteswissenschaften
22 Jun 2023 – 24 Jun 2023
Conference
The Right to Testify. The Public Status of the Witness in Times of Social Change
13 Jul 2023 – 15 Jul 2023
Annual Conference at the ZfL
Counterworlds. Intervention and Escapism in Times of Turmoil
13 Jul 2023
Panel discussion
Intervention, Unlearning, (Post-)Critique: The Humanities at a Crossroads

The ZfL
The ZfL is a humanities institute for literary research in interdisciplinary contexts that draws from a cultural studies framework. Its methods also engage with the structural transformations within historical-hermeneutic subject areas that have taken place in recent decades. In contrast to the study of literature at universities, predominantly organized by nationality, the ZfL fosters a broad concept of literature, but also uses interdisciplinary tools to fundamentally question the etiology of various literary concepts, their potential for the future, and the relationship between literature and other arts or cultural practices. This is done in the three program area History of Theory, World Literature, Knowledge of Life, and in the key projects.
News

New episode of “Bücher im Gespräch”: Barbara Picht and Moritz Neuffer talk about the self-exploration of European intellectuals in the Cold War

Job advertisement: Researcher (m/f/d) for the project “Aitiologies in the Reality Narratives of the Natural Sciences”
Research
History of Theory
analyzes the genealogy of theory and develops innovative forms of historicizing it.
read moreWorld Literature
disusses the global interrelations of literature and its potential to shape the world.
read moreKnowledge of Life
investigates the knowlege of life in historical and interdisciplinary respects.
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