Andreas Kilcher: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2019 |
| Name | Prof. Dr. Andreas Kilcher |
| Field | Literature and Cultural Studies |
| Address | Literatur- u. Kulturwiss., Kilcher ETH Zürich, RZ H 1.2 Clausiusstrasse 59 8092 Zürich SWITZERLAND |
| Telephone | +41 44 632 79 20 |
| akilcher@ethz.ch | |
| Department | Humanities, Social and Political Sciences |
| Relationship | Full Professor |
| Number | Title | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 851-0101-90L | Aesthetics: On the History and Theory of Beauty | 3 credits | 2S | A. Kilcher | |
| Abstract | The meaning of the "beautiful" seems hard to pin down. Yet intersubjective and objective criteria of the beautiful nevertheless exist. The foundation of aesthetics as a "science" of the beautiful based on sensuous experience temporarily suspended this tension. Since modernity, the question of the beautiful has been ever more open. We shall approach this question theoretically and historically. | ||||
| Objective | The meaning of the "beautiful" seems hard to define. At first glance, it rather constitutes a merely subjective sensation. Yet, on the other hand, intersubjective, collective and cultural ideas, or even objective criteria of the beautiful exist. Since antiquity, this irresolvable tension has characterized the discourse on the beautiful in the realms of art and philosophy. With the foundation of "aesthetics" in the 18th century, however, this debate was significantly altered. This new "science" aimed at a scientific investigation of the beautiful by situating sensuous impression above logic. While art had been hitherto understood as a learnable technique, it now appears as a sensuous and therefore subjective realization. The rejection of this optimism marks the turn to modernity that defined itself through a notion of art transcending the beautiful. Ever since, the question as to the meaning of the beautiful has been continuously open for debate. In the course of this seminar, we shall approach this question from a historical as well as theoretical perspective. | ||||
| 851-0101-91L | Modernity and its Other: Fantastic Literature and Occultism ca. 1900 | 3 credits | 2V | A. Kilcher | |
| Abstract | The course focuses on the complex relation between the Fantastic and Occultism, which is understood as part of the history of knowledge of the imaginary after the 18th century. | ||||
| Objective | The course aims at conveying a general overview on various theoretical and literary conceptions of the Fantastic. At the same time it wishes to transmit the knowledge of occultism and its forms of representation. | ||||
| Content | The Fantastic may be understood as the conflictual surpassing of the fundamental literary function of fantasy during the modern age. Fantasy no longer structures an autonomous wonderful world, but it breaks in on the real as the imaginary. After 1800, and in the form of the imaginary, the fantastic breaks into a world that is thought to be rational and scientifically explainable while dissolving the causative correlations of the Enlightenment. In the backdrop of such tensed evolution, the Fantastic establishes itself within the context of the secularisation and of the scientification of knowledge. Yet, the Fantastic also promotes new forms of knowledge that come into conflict with the academic sciences during the 18th and 19th centuries and assert themselves as counterknowledge. This becomes evident and comprehensible in relation to occult sciences, namely theosophy, occultism, spiritism etc. With reference to the Fantastic counterknowledge becomes evident in a wide variety of distinctive images, and narratives, that relate of the uncanny, the gothic, the grotesque, the demonic, the surreal etc. At the same time, occult sciences look for the proximity to the arts of the Fantastic, that promise a new aesthetic -- as well as their possibilities in the media -- for the representation and the narration of the imaginary and the obscure. The course has a twofold goal. It wishes to understand the notion and the history of Fantastic literature beginning with the 19th century, taking as case studies crucial and intriguing writers such as E.T.A. Hoffmann, Gustav Meyrink and Jorge Louis Borges. At the same time, the course aims at ascertaining the notion "occult knowledge" (resp. occult sciences) and its epistemological aspiration in conflict with academic knowledge. The lecture, therefore, aims at the reconstruction of the complex interrelation between the Fantastic and Occultism as a part of the history of knowledge of the imaginary right up to Psychoanalysis. | ||||
| 862-0089-05L | Advanced Colloquium in Literary Studies (HS 2019)  Colloquium is designed for advanced and graduated students. | 2 credits | 1K | A. Kilcher | |
| Abstract | The colloquium addresses advanced and graduate students. First, it offers participants the opportunity to present their own research projects (work in progress); and, second, it provides a most fruitful space to discuss methodological, theoretical and systematic complex issues. | ||||
| Objective | The colloquium addresses advanced and graduate students. First, it offers participants the opportunity to present their own research projects (work in progress); and, second, it provides a most fruitful space to discuss methodological, theoretical and systematic complex issues. | ||||