Sacred Investigators
Conference on: “Sacred Investigators.” Religion in Detective Novels—Jewish, Christian and Islamic Aspects
Organized by the study group “Religion and Literature,” directed by Prof. Dr. Almut-Barbara Renger, Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion, Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin and Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam.
Expected date: January 2013
For more information (in German) click here.
Translating the Bible in the Middle Ages
I am very pleased to announce an outstanding meeting at Harvard that will present current work on medieval Bible translations. The symposium brings together my colleagues Nicholas Watson, Luis Girón-Negrón, and Michelle de Groot, who have been running an international project in this exciting field over the past two years. It will be a unique opportunity to learn more about the scope and promise of this work, which has already begun to redefine the field by illustrating the profound ramifications of Bible translation within divergent European literary and cultural traditions. Please see the official invitation here.
John Hamilton
Series of Lectures in Jewish Studies at Harvard
This Spring term the departments of Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Literatures and Civilizations are hosting a series of lectures in Jewish Studies.
Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873 – 1934)
On Thursday, February 16, Yosefa Raz (University of California, Berkeley) will be speaking on the poetry of H.N. Bialik: “Treading on Thin Ice: Strength and Weakness in the Prophetic Poetry of H.N. Bialik.” The lecture will be held at Harvard’s Semitic Museum, Room 201, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 4:00 – 6:00 pm.
Yosefa Raz’s talk will consider questions of strength and weakness in the revival of the prophetic mode in Modern Hebrew poetry in the first decades of the twentieth century. In contrast to many critics of Hebrew literature, who create a dichotomy between the authoritative religious stance of the ancient prophets and the secular, diminished position of their modern incarnations, I argue for more continuity between the ancient and modern texts based on a shared precariousness in the face of history. This precariousness, or weakness, in both the content and form of the prophetic texts, sometimes results in an anxious covering over of gaps and ambiguities. However, at the same time, these difficulties can become a source of generative, creative potential, utilized by the modern prophet-poets.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888 – 1970)
On Thursday, February 23, we will be hosting a second talk by Professor Ilana Pardes (Hebrew University, Jerusalem). The lecture will also be held at the Semitic Museum, 4:00 – 6:00. The title of the talk is: “Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs as Cultural Text.”
Venus as Muse
We would like to inform you of an interdisciplinary conference on the ancient goddess Venus and figurations of the creative at the Kolleg Morphomata in Cologne from January 18th-20th, 2012. The conference seeks to address concrete cultural figurations of Aphrodite|Venus and the different conceptualizations of creativity these figurations both manifest and transform. These conceptualizations are contoured by way of cultural comparisons with non-Western figurations of creativity—with »Sisters of Venus« (Joe J. Heydecker). A special focus lies on different media of representation, such as literature, film, and the visual arts.
Please find more information about this event here.
Workshop on (De-)sacralization
January 21, 2012: Workshop on (De-)sacralization
We would like to bring to your attention a workshop on sacralization and desacralization. Among the speakers will be Hans Joas, Permanent Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), School of History, and Professor for Sociology and member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. The workshop will take place at the University of Hamburg. For more information, get in touch with our study group member Marc Föcking, Professor at the Institute for Romance Studies (marc.foecking@uni-hamburg.de).
Season’s Greetings
Religious Elements in Fantastic Literature
The Role of Religious Elements in Fantastic Children’s and Youth Literature
By Edli Akolli
Speaker: Verena Düntsch (Freie Universität Berlin)
December 14th 2011, 6 pm
Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion, Gossler Str. 2-4, 14195 Berlin, room 009
Almost every fantastic story exhibits some transcendental references. That is not to say that the story itself must be related to a specific religion. The religious elements often occur in connection with the plot’s fantastic incidents. Sometimes they serve as some kind of legitimization, often they simply occur in the manner the text is structured (e.g., by adopting some religious structures or rituals), and occasionally they merely provide the venue for the narrative’s unfolding. What kind of function, however, do the religious elements have in relation to the literary action—especially in view of the children and the youth? Read more…
Artemis in Poetry
We would like to cordially invite you to our upcoming event:
“Religion and Literature: A Workshop at the Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik Berlin (Cast Collection of Ancient Sculpture Berlin).”
The workshop will be held on Friday, December 9th 2011, from 10 am to 2 pm.
For further information please see the flyer here: front/back.
Europa, Europe: Myth Reception in 20th Century German Poetry
We wish to inform you of an upcoming event at the DFG-Kolleg “Verfassung jenseits des Staates” on myth reception in 20th century German poetry.
Speaker: Roland A. Ißler and Almut-Barbara Renger
December 7th, 2011, 6 pm
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Unter den Linden 11, WHI-Bibliothek (GOV 101)
After 2,500 years of the mythical Greco-Roman “Europa” figure being regularly associated with the geopolitical concept of “Europe”, the connection of Europa with Europe can be seen everywhere in German literature and visual art of the 20th century and the present. Here qualities and characteristics of myth and continent, or more specifically of political unity, are transferred to each other reciprocally. The female figure and European ideas of varying relevance serve as a projection screen for a variety of socio-cultural, political, and sometimes even religious or spiritual needs, desires and demands. This presentation explores the reception of the Europa myth using selected literary examples.
“Religious” or “Secular/Literary”?
“Religious” or “Secular/Literary”?
The Term Secularization and its Problematization Today
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Johann Figl (University of Vienna, Austria)
November 10th 2011, 2 pm
Freie Universität Berlin, Rost-/Silberlaube Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin,
room KL 32/123
HolyLit
