Walter Benjamin obtained his doctoral degree on June 27 of 1919 at the University of Bern. Precisely 100 years on, this serves as an occasion to host the bi-annual conference organized by the International Walter Benjamin Society in Bern and to look at these beginnings. Six thematic-based panels show how much Benjamin’s thinking is connected to almost all humanities subjects, but in any case, requires inter- and trans-disciplinary access. A reading group aims to promote a discussion of two of Benjamin’s texts.
Lectures and concert at Zentrum Paul Klee, June 26:
- Annie Bourneuf: Too Many Times: On Klee’s Angelus Novus
– Axel Körner: Benjamin, Klee, Catastrophe. Historical Time in European Perspective
-Concert CAMERATA BERN with Patricia Kopatchinskaja: Pierrot Lunaire
Keynotes:
– Galili Shahar, Tel Aviv
- Juliet Simpson, Coventry
- Brigid Doherty, Princeton
- Sigrid Weigel, Berlin
Program:
1. Uncanny Modernities / Modernisms – Repetition, Phantom, Phantasm in the Wake of World War I (Christine Blättler, Kiel / Gabriele Rippl, Bern)
2. Early Lives – Childhood and Youth (Ben Morgan, Oxford / Michael Stolz, Bern)
3. Exile and Migration – Peripatetic Lives and Traveling Ideas (Carolin Duttlinger, Oxford / Kristina Schulz, Neuchâtel)
4. Benjamin, Switzerland, and Horizons of Jewish Identity – A Space of Experience (Ilit Ferber, Tel Aviv / René Bloch, Bern)
5. The Berne PhD. Dissertation – Art Criticism and the Art of Criticism (Michael W. Jennings, Princeton / Alexander Honold, Basel)
6. The Art of Translation – Experiencing Other Languages (Gérard Raulet, Paris / Julia Straub, Bern)
Reading Group (Ori Rotlevy, Tel Aviv / Toni Hildebrandt, Bern)
Please find the detailed program including abstracts here (updated on June 25).
Organization:
The call for papers ended on September 30, 2018. The organizing committee has received 94 high-level applications. In an anonymous selection process, 69 proposals from 16 countries were accepted.
Here’s the list of hotel allotments: Benjamin_conference_2019_accomodations
Registration fee: regular 237 CHF, students/post-graduates 173 CHF
In case of any questions please contact conference@wbkolleg.unibe.ch.
Media response:
- Tachles on July 5, 2019: Auf den Spuren Benjamins
- Der BUND on June 29, 2019: Interview with Anselm Gerhard