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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Gipper
Event type:
Advanced seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
06.059.0508
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
German
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 15
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
Das Seminar richtet sich vor allem an Studierende mit Französisch als Fremdsprache oder als Grundsprache. Interessierte Studierende anderer Fächer mit Französischkenntnissen sind willkommen.
Anforderungen: mündlicher Vortrag mit Präsentation oder Handout, schriftliche Hausarbeit (Abgabefrist: 15.03.2023).
Contents:
The aphorism as a literary form that seeks its sharpest expression in reduction and pointed concision has a long tradition in France. Especially the so-called moralistic literature of the classical period, a literature that has less to do with morality than with an unbiased observation of the moeurs, i.e. the social codes of the time, has contributed to an unprecedented flourishing of the genre. This is exemplified by authors such as La Rochefoucault, Mme de Sablé, La Bruyère, and Pascal. Since this time, aphorism has been a literary genre at the interface of literature and philosophy.
With Émile Cioran (1911-1995), the genre experienced a new flowering in the 20th century. Cioran intensifies the tendency of aphorism towards the psychological unmasking of human weaknesses, vices, and virtues into a radical pessimism and a radical deconstruction of human value systems that in many respects heralds the philosophical thinking of deconstruction. With his radical critique of any ideology of progress, he strikes a chord with the increasing awareness of the price of scientific-technological progress and with any political ideologies pretending to promote universal happiness.
In the seminar, we will first turn to selected examples of the aphoristic literature of the classical period, and then focus on the analysis of selected parts of Cioran's work, especially the Syllogismes de l'amertume (1952). This will include considerations on the essence of aphorism as a genre, as well as a discussion of the specific problems of its translation. It is clear that the strategy of artful concision and punchline make the aphorism a form of art that can be described with regard to its linguistic means as a kind of "philosophical poetry" (Margolius), and therefore places special demands on the translator.
Digital teaching:
Das Seminar ist als wöchentliche Präsenzveranstaltung geplant. Eine Zuschaltung über MS Teams ist möglich (auf Wunsch).
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