Auerbach in Istanbul: A Reading from ‘Die Sprache der Sonne’

Matthias Goeritz, distinguished German author and Professor of Practice of Comparative Literature, will give a German-language reading of his critically acclaimed novel Die Sprache der Sonne (C.H. Beck, 2023). Die Sprache der Sonne (The Sun Language) deftly shifts perspectives between present-day Istanbul, where an American journalist looks for traces of her deceased German-Jewish grandmother, and the 1930s, when Istanbul was a haven for German-Jewish intellectuals, and intellectual theory from the profound to the outlandish abounded. The German-language reading and subsequent discussion will highlight the role Istanbul played in fostering German intellectual thought that was sidelined by the Nazi regime. Goeritz will be joined in conversation by Walter Schlect, Subject Librarian for Germanic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature, in University Libraries. 

This event will kick off the symposium “Theory as Event: Epistemic Cultures and Humanistic Knowledge Production in Germany Since 1968.”