Religion in Goethe’s Poetry

Kleist Prize winner Dirk von Petersdorff as visiting fellow at the Cluster of Excellence

Prof. Dr. Dirk von Petersdorff
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On 3 July, the literary scholar, writer and Kleist Prize winner Prof. Dr Dirk von Petersdorff will speak about the religious aspects of the poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at the University of Münster’s Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”. According to Prof. von Petersdorff, who comes to Münster as a visiting fellow at the invitation of Germanist Prof. Dr Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, Goethe had taken different positions on religion in his poems. These range “from a vehement materialistic critique of religion to the justification of a ‘divine’ as essential for existence.” Dirk von Petersdorff will give the public lecture “‘Kollektivwesen’ Goethe. Widersprüche und Spannungsverhältnisse im lyrischen Werk” (Goethe, the ‘collective being’. Contradictions and tensions in his lyrical work) on Tuesday, 3 July 2018, at 7.15 pm in room VSH 116 at Vom-Stein-Haus, Schlossplatz 34 in Münster.

“In a self-characterisation, Goethe described himself as a ‘collective being’,” explains Prof. von Petersdorff. “By that he meant that different voices were organised in his work without resulting in ideological unity. The lecture takes this author’s self-description without a core of truth seriously and looks at Goethe’s lyrical work.” The literary scholar announces that the lecture will first address the composition of the collected editions of his poems, for which Goethe himself is responsible, and then individual lyrical texts.

Prof. von Petersdorff teaches literature at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. His research focuses on literature and social modernisation from the 18th to the 20th century as well as on literature and religion. The literary scholar is a member of the Research Training Group “The Romantic Model. Variation – Scope – Relevance”. His scientific publications include “Mysterienrede. Zum Selbstverständnis romantischer Intellektueller” (Mystery Speeches. On the Self-Image of Romantic Intellectuals; 1996) and “Centrifugal Forces of Modernity. Zur Ich-Konstitution in der Lyrik des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts” (Centrifugal Forces of Modernity. On Constituting the I in Early 20th-Century Poetry; 2005). He is currently working on a monograph on Goethe’s poetry. Prof. von Petersdorff has received numerous awards as a poet and writer, including the Kleist Prize and poetics lectureships at the universities in Kiel and Mainz. He held a poetics lectureship at the University of Tübingen together with Hans Magnus Enzensberger. (asc/vvm)

Public lecture “Kollektivwesen” Goethe. Widersprüche und Spannungsverhältnisse im lyrischen Werk (Goethe, the ‘collective being’. Contradictions and tensions in his lyrical work) with Prof. Dr. Dirk von Petersdorff, Jena

Tuesday, 3 July 2018, at 7.15 pm in rat
Vom-Stein-Haus, oom VSH 116
Schlossplatz 34
48143 Münster.