In the last decade of his life, Siegfried Kracauer, now mostly known as a media theorist, began preparing a book on history. Unfinished at the time of his death, History: The Last Things Before the Last was published posthumously in 1969. This workshop will explore a concern that is arguably central to the book: the problem of historical time. For Kracauer, every conception of historical time has to confront what he calls its ‘insoluble antinomy’, the necessity to think the flow of time together with the shapes of time incommensurable to it. Over the course of our one-day workshop, we will discuss Kracauer’s analysis of this antinomy and the challenge it poses to traditional historical categories such as the date, the period, and the transition between periods. Comprised of two parts, the workshop will start from a collective reading of excerpts from History in order to then consider its relation to other engagements with the ‘riddle of time’, from Marx to Kubler and Benjamin to Blumenberg.

This workshop is a collaboration with the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung and is occasioned by the (videorecorded) talk ‘When Time Becomes Form’ Eva Geulen gave in the context of the ICI Lecture Series ERRANS, in Time.

In English
With

Eva Geulen
Hannes Bajohr
Siarhei Biareishyk
Christiane Frey
Francesco Giusti
Hannah Proctor
Daniel Reeve
Tom Vandeputte
Arnd Wedemeyer

Organized by

A workshop with Eva Geulen, organized by Christiane Frey and Tom Vandeputte

The event, like all events at the ICI Berlin, is open to the public, free of charge. The audience is presumed to consent to a possible recording on the part of the ICI Berlin. If you would like to attend the event yet might require assistance, please contact Event Management.

KV Kracauer

This event is fully booked. If you wish to be added to the waiting list, please contact info@ici-berlin.org