Nicholas Saul (U of Durham) lecture "On Difficulty"

December 13, 2021

11:00AM - 12:30PM

via ZOOM

Add to Calendar 2021-12-13 12:00:00 2021-12-13 13:30:00 Nicholas Saul (U of Durham) lecture "On Difficulty" You are cordially invited to a talk via ZOOM Nicholas Saul University of Durham On Difficulty: Botho Strauß, Two Cultures, Literature and Evolutionism [EST 11:00-12:30pm] Botho Strauß (1944-) is still regarded as one of the leading contemporary German writers, famed for his early work in the theatre with Peter Stein (Trilogie des Wiedersehens, 1976) and his postmodern re-invention of the superannuated genre of the Bildungsroman (Der junge Mann, 1984). Always regarded as an intellectual and ‘difficult’ writer in the tradition of Heidegger, Adorno and Derrida, Strauß alas ruined his avant-garde reputation with the essay Anschwellender Bocksgesang (1993-1994), which many saw as an appeal to the neo-nationalist right. Since then his public profile has been much reduced. This paper argues however with George Steiner’s On Difficulty (1978) that the chief significance of Strauß’s literary project and major impulses for his self-understanding are to be found neither in leftish Critical Theory and deconstruction nor reactionary rightish Heideggerism. Instead, it seeks to disclose something almost untouched in scholarly research on Strauß: his lifelong fascination with evolutionary theory, so that he in fact belongs with his hero Thomas Mann in the great Classic-Romantic tradition of the poeta doctus. The genetic-aesthetic motif of random copying with modification, derived from the evolutionist philosopher Jacques Monod, not only connotes Strauß’s perennial habitus of intertextual rewriting. It also symbolises both the search for authentic selfhood of Bekker in Rumor (1980) and of the intrinsically uncreative recycler Syks in the cultural evolution experiment of Der junge Mann. Later, moreover, following Strauß’s celebration of the complex evolutionism of system theory in Beginnlosigkeit (1992), the copying motif enables his attempt in the autobiographical Die Fehler des Kopisten (1997) to circumscribe the father-son relationship with a new, postmodern, posthumanist poetic of plural self- construction. In all this Strauß is argued to be a writer whose central purpose is not (only) radical politics of left or right, but in the age of science (Werner von Siemens) to bridge the ‘two cultures’ culture divide made famous by C.P. Snow. via ZOOM OSU ASC Drupal 8 ascwebservices@osu.edu America/New_York public

Add to Calendar 2021-12-13 11:00:00 2021-12-13 12:30:00 Nicholas Saul (U of Durham) lecture "On Difficulty" You are cordially invited to a talk via ZOOM Nicholas Saul University of Durham On Difficulty: Botho Strauß, Two Cultures, Literature and Evolutionism [EST 11:00-12:30pm] Botho Strauß (1944-) is still regarded as one of the leading contemporary German writers, famed for his early work in the theatre with Peter Stein (Trilogie des Wiedersehens, 1976) and his postmodern re-invention of the superannuated genre of the Bildungsroman (Der junge Mann, 1984). Always regarded as an intellectual and ‘difficult’ writer in the tradition of Heidegger, Adorno and Derrida, Strauß alas ruined his avant-garde reputation with the essay Anschwellender Bocksgesang (1993-1994), which many saw as an appeal to the neo-nationalist right. Since then his public profile has been much reduced. This paper argues however with George Steiner’s On Difficulty (1978) that the chief significance of Strauß’s literary project and major impulses for his self-understanding are to be found neither in leftish Critical Theory and deconstruction nor reactionary rightish Heideggerism. Instead, it seeks to disclose something almost untouched in scholarly research on Strauß: his lifelong fascination with evolutionary theory, so that he in fact belongs with his hero Thomas Mann in the great Classic-Romantic tradition of the poeta doctus. The genetic-aesthetic motif of random copying with modification, derived from the evolutionist philosopher Jacques Monod, not only connotes Strauß’s perennial habitus of intertextual rewriting. It also symbolises both the search for authentic selfhood of Bekker in Rumor (1980) and of the intrinsically uncreative recycler Syks in the cultural evolution experiment of Der junge Mann. Later, moreover, following Strauß’s celebration of the complex evolutionism of system theory in Beginnlosigkeit (1992), the copying motif enables his attempt in the autobiographical Die Fehler des Kopisten (1997) to circumscribe the father-son relationship with a new, postmodern, posthumanist poetic of plural self- construction. In all this Strauß is argued to be a writer whose central purpose is not (only) radical politics of left or right, but in the age of science (Werner von Siemens) to bridge the ‘two cultures’ culture divide made famous by C.P. Snow. via ZOOM Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures germanic@osu.edu America/New_York public

You are cordially invited to a talk via ZOOM

Nicholas Saul

University of Durham

On Difficulty:
Botho Strauß, Two Cultures, Literature and Evolutionism

[EST 11:00-12:30pm]

Botho Strauß (1944-) is still regarded as one of the leading contemporary German writers, famed for his early work in the theatre with Peter Stein (Trilogie des Wiedersehens, 1976) and his postmodern re-invention of the superannuated genre of the Bildungsroman (Der junge Mann, 1984). Always regarded as an intellectual and ‘difficult’ writer in the tradition of Heidegger, Adorno and Derrida, Strauß alas ruined his avant-garde reputation with the essay Anschwellender Bocksgesang (1993-1994), which many saw as an appeal to the neo-nationalist right. Since then his public profile has been much reduced. This paper argues however with George Steiner’s On Difficulty (1978) that the chief significance of Strauß’s literary project and major impulses for his self-understanding are to be found neither in leftish Critical Theory and deconstruction nor reactionary rightish Heideggerism. Instead, it seeks to disclose something almost untouched in scholarly research on Strauß: his lifelong fascination with evolutionary theory, so that he in fact belongs with his hero Thomas Mann in the great Classic-Romantic tradition of the poeta doctus. The genetic-aesthetic motif of random copying with modification, derived from the evolutionist philosopher Jacques Monod, not only connotes Strauß’s perennial habitus of intertextual rewriting. It also symbolises both the search for authentic selfhood of Bekker in Rumor (1980) and of the intrinsically uncreative recycler Syks in the cultural evolution experiment of Der junge Mann. Later, moreover, following Strauß’s celebration of the complex evolutionism of system theory in Beginnlosigkeit (1992), the copying motif enables his attempt in the autobiographical Die Fehler des Kopisten (1997) to circumscribe the father-son relationship with a new, postmodern, posthumanist poetic of plural self- construction. In all this Strauß is argued to be a writer whose central purpose is not (only) radical politics of left or right, but in the age of science (Werner von Siemens) to bridge the ‘two cultures’ culture divide made famous by C.P. Snow.