Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Winfried Fluck (Freie Universität Berlin): Reading for Recognition: Narratives of Recognition and What We Do with Them

Without recognition we could not know who we are. But if recognition is a crucial constituent of identity formation, one should assume that it also plays a key role in literature and that it shapes our reading and interpretation of literature. How can the concept of recognition be applied to the interpretation of fictional texts, then? My lecture will address the question of the relation between literature and recognition and provide examples of possible interpretive uses. An important starting point is that the project of reading for recognition should not be confused with the politics of recognition.      

Winfried Fluck is Professor em. of American Culture at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies of Freie Universität Berlin. He studied at Freie Universität Berlin, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, taught at the Universität Konstanz, Universidad Autonoma Barcelona, Princeton University, UC Irvine, the University of Richmond and Dartmouth College, and was a research fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina, the Advanced Studies Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, and the Internationales Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum in Vienna.

Entrance is free and open to the public.

The event is organized by the Department of American Studies, the Center for Inter-American Studies and the Zentrum für Kulturwissenschaften.

University of Graz, Institute of American Studies, 0316/380-8205

amerikanistik@uni-graz.at, http://amerikanistik.uni-graz.at