LFU:online

The participants will know conceptions and cultures of loving, as they were developed in (1) literary traditions of narrating love-stories and emotions inspirited by love/Eros, as well as in (2) philosophical and psychoanalytical concepts of narcissism or (platonic) soul mates, as well as in (3) the visual arts. We will read Platon, Ovid, Petrarca, Kleist, Goethe, Flaubert, T. Mann, Musil, Doderer, and Freud among others. The course enables participants to recognize the cultural roots and traditions of the different forms of love in modern and contemporary texts/works of arts.

Loving, more precisely the manners of loving seem to be very individual. However, for all this individuality (everybody falls into love in his own manner), the simple fact that someone is loving makes him to have in common something with everybody.

This paradoxical position between singularity and universality is the starting-point for the seminar’s main questions. How does european literature und poetry represent loving since Sappho and Ovid, and how does philosophy think about loving since Platon; and which different conceptions of loving are evolved through-out the european literary history and art history: What can we learn about how people loved? Is love an illusion, or is it real? Is there a difference (what is the difference) between elysian and terrestrial/fleshly loving? Can one love narcissistically only oneself after all, or does loving base in reciprocal structures? Does loving only replace deeper mental/psychical longings?

On the one hand, we will read philosophical texts concerning Eros, the relation between love and the divine idea or love and mystical conceptions (Platon, Plutarch, Meister Eckhart). On the other hand, we will read selected poems of Sappho, Ovid, Petrarca, Opitz; we will analyze representations of loving in 18.-20.century narrations and plays, as realized for example by Lessing, Kleist, Goethe, Flaubert, Thomas Mann, Doderer. Besides, we will have a look at the visual representations of mythical lovers like “Narciss”, “Amor” and “Psyche” as well as at baroque emblems. Also, we will take Freud’s concept of  fetish, libido, and Eros into account.

The different concepts are developed both in lectures and keynote speeches (held by the lecturer and the students) as well as in discussions and discussion groups with students.

To accomplish the course the students have to prepare several keynote speeches and write a commentary (2-3 pages). In addition, the active participation in the discussions will be part of the grading.

Platon, Symposion  

Plutarch, Dialog über die Liebe

Sappho (Auswahl)

Ovid (Ausschnitte aus Ars Amatoria; Metamorphosen)

Sor Juana de la Cruz, El divino Narciso (Ausschnitte)

Petrarca, Canzoniere (Auswahl)

Shakespeare, Sonetts (Auswahl)

Martin Opitz, Schäfferey von der Nimfen Hercinie

Kleist, Penthesilea, Marquise von O…

Goethe, Werther, Wahlverwandtschaften

Tieck, Die wilde Engländerin

Flaubert, Herodias

Thomas Mann, Der kleine Herr Friedemann, Wälsungenblut,  Tod in Venedig (hier ggf. Ausschnitte)

Heimito von Doderer,  Strudlhofstiege, Dämonen (Auszüge)