Postwar German Literature and the Quest for the Past

This George Wittenstein lecture will be given by Amir Eshel, Stanford University:

“History as a Gift: Postwar German Literature and the Quest for the Past”

Tuesday, May 20, at 5 pm, in HSSB 6020.

Dr. Eshel will explore prevalent approaches to the literary and cultural engagement with National Socialism in Germany from the 1950s to the present while arguing for the need to develop new paradigms. Referring to the work of such eminent writers as Guenter Grass and Alexander Kluge, the lecture will also introduce the innovative prose of younger writers such as Hans Ulrich Treichel, Norbert Gstrein and Katharina Hacker.

Born in Haifa, Israel, Amir Eshel completed his PhD at the University of Hamburg, Germany before arriving at Stanford in 1998. He is a Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature as well as the Director of the
Forum on Contemporary Europe at Stanford University. Amir Eshel’s work focuses on the German-Jewish literary and philosophical tradition, on postwar German literature, on contemporary Hebrew prose as well as on
theoretical approaches to the study of memory and history. His first book, Zeit der Zaesur: Juedische Lyriker im Angesicht der Shoah, offered a study of temporal forms in the work of Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, Rose Auslaender,
Yehuda Amichai, Dan Pagis, Tuvia Ruebner and Jacob Glatstein. He is currently completing a book manuscript on the literary engagement with the past in the contemporary German, Israeli and Anglo-American novel.

Dr. Wittenstein will be presented with the first volume of the Library’s Oral History Project; the Chancellor will attend.

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