The Department of Languages and Literatures

Winter Seminar Series presents:

"Goethe's Western Eastern Divan and the Idea of Freedom."

by

Ladan Torkamani

PhD Candidate University of Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract: The concept of ‘freedom’ has always been connected to politics. In European literature the topic of ‘freedom’ has often been equalized with individual or political freedom. The freedom of mind as it has been thematised by Kant, Schiller, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, is the foundation of this thesis. The other basis is the idea of freedom, das ‘unbedingte Freie’, as it is explained by Goethe in his Noten und Abhandlungen, and in his description of Persian poetry, Hafez’ Divan and the oriental fairy tales, which stay as an opposition to Islamic religion and prophet Mohammed (chapter “Mahomet”). Goethe discovered Hafez’ Divan when he read the German translation of the poems by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall in 1814. Goethe associates both Hafez’ Divan and the oriental fairy tales with pleasure and freedom. Both terms, pleasure and freedom, are in opposition to the educational and purpose oriented European literature. Goethe writes his biggest poem collection under the great influence of Persian poetry and the oriental fairy tales. He turns away from the European methods of the Enlightenment and classicism and chooses the free way of the orient. The central question of this presentation is whether freedom of mind is possible in literature, art and even as a preparation for political freedom.

Refreshements will be provided

All are welcome!