From Hegel to Nietzsche: Literature as/and Philosophy

This seminar has two aims. It will scrutinize Hegel's and Nietzsche's respective conceptions of literature, and it will analyze the particular use of literary texts in their writings. The choice of these two authors is based not only on the fact that they qualify as representatives of the trajectory of German philosophy in the 19th century. They also act as antagonists on systematic grounds: While Hegel seeks to outperform literature with philosophy, Nietzsche depicts human life as an "aesthetic phenomenon," arguably creating a "literary" mode of philosophy. Enrollment limited to 30.