Events
06 Jul 2022
Wednesday lecture
Friedrich Balke (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): Theatralität, Urteilssucht und Hassrede bei Karl Kraus (mit Blick auf die “Letzten Tage der Menschheit”)
07 Jul 2022 – 09 Jul 2022
Conference
Walter Benjamin in the East – Networks, Conflicts, and Reception
14 Jul 2022
Lecture
Johannes F. Lehmann: Politik der Rettung. Überlegungen zu einem politischen Narrativ jenseits von Sicherheit und Heil
15 Jul 2022
Seminar
The Dissident Library: Kulturraum Lager. Politische Haft und dissidentisches Selbstverständnis in der Sowjetunion nach Stalin

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 Focus Projects.
News

New in the Audio Collection: Matthias Schwartz and Leandra Bias on masculinities in Eastern Europe (ZOiS podcast)
Out now in open access: Barbara Picht on the “Interpreters of Europe” and the Cold War

New in the Audio Collection: “Überfluss und Freiheit” (Pierre Charbonnier) Review by Leander Scholz
New in the Video Collection: “Doppelrollen im Literaturbetrieb” Panel discussion moderated by Hanna Hamel and Eva Stubenrauch
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.
read moreFocus Projects
work on issues that run across the thematic fields of the program areas.
read more