Andreas Härter: Literature and Emptiness - A Search for Traces

Description

Literature is constantly engaged in creating spaces, equipping them with contours, and bringing figures to life. Settings, crime, encounter, and event locations – without space, there is no storytelling. Narrated spaces are often diverse and lively, sometimes lonely and sparse, but never completely empty. And yet: emptiness is anything but foreign to literature; it belongs to it, whether in bleak landscapes, abandoned places, experiences of insignificance and loss, gaps, or silences. Where and how does emptiness appear amidst narrated worlds? How is it made visible, how is it told, how is it reflected? And what if there is nothing in the emptiness? Not even literature that talks about it? The lecture embarks on a search for traces in the broad field, including Büchner, Kafka, Beckett, Elmiger. Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Härter (*1958) is a Germanist and was a long-standing lecturer and titular professor for German language and literature at the University of St. Gallen. He studied German studies and philosophy at the University of Zurich. In 1989, he was elected as a permanent lecturer for German language and literature at the University of St. Gallen; he habilitated in 1998. His scientific focuses include literary theory, rhetoric and poetics, 18th and early 19th century, Franz Kafka. Currently, he is engaged with space theory and the cultural history of empty space. The lecture takes place at the Museum of Emptiness, fitting the theme.

Highlights

• Lecture by Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Härter
• Thematization of emptiness in literature
• Venue: Museum of Emptiness

General Information

Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Härter's lecture examines the role of emptiness in literature and its depiction in narrated worlds. He highlights works by authors such as Büchner, Kafka, and Beckett and takes place at the Museum of Emptiness.

Location

Haldenstrasse 5, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland

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