Events
13 Mar 2026
Symposium
Künste – Medien – Umwelt. Architekturtexte der österreichischen Neoavantgarde (1955–1975)
17 Mar 2026
Book presentation with Irina Scherbakowa and Franziska Thun-Hohenstein
Politik und Biographik
20 Mar 2026
Lecture
James Conant (University of Chicago): Family Resemblance, Composite Photography, and Unity of Concept: Goethe, Galton, Wittgenstein
20 Apr 2026
Book presentation with Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Eva Geulen and Stephan Schlak
Sepp über Sepp
07 May 2026 – 08 May 2026
DFG-Netzwerktagung
Frage und Antwort zugleich. Das Rätsel als dialogische Struktur und narratives Muster in Literatur, Film und Spiel
07 May 2026
Lecture
Fanny Wehner (ZfL): Vladimir Nabokov – Berlin wider Willen: fünf Adressen und ein Stadtführer
01 Jun 2026
Vortrag
Patrick Eiden-Offe (ZfL): Robert Walser –- Von Biel nach Berlin und zurück: Prosastückli aus dem Weltstadtgetümmel
02 Jul 2026
Lecture
Shira Miron (Universität Basel): Gertrud Kolmar – Dichten gegen den Alltag
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
Call for Papers: Arendt | Nietzsche — Genealogies, Affinities, Differences
New episode of “Bücher im Gespräch”: Sophia Gräfe and Georg Toepfer discuss the history of knowledge of behaviour
New in the audio collection: Discussion on the occasion of Judith Butler’s 70th birthday
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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