In the organizer's words:

Lecture by Volker Pietsch followed by a discussion with Laura Lichtblau and Esther Becker
Moderated by Fabian Bernhardt

Artificial humans, serial killers and cannibals: In E. T. A. Hoffmann, no one can be trusted, least of all ourselves. Volker Pietsch explores the question of what political and critical potential Hoffmann's texts still have after 250 years - whether on issues of manipulation, gender politics or economics. This will be followed by a discussion with writers Laura Lichtblau and Esther Becker about the eerie in contemporary literature. Lichtblau's novel "Sund" explores the uncanny in the blind spots of family memory and in the collective repression of historical trauma. Becker, whose short story collection "Notfallkontakte" (Emergency Contacts) works in part with horror motifs, is particularly interested in the feminist potential of contemporary Latin American gothic literature and in socially critical horror in arthouse cinema. What exactly do the aesthetics of spectacle and horror achieve in contemporary literature? Are there lines of tradition to E. T. A. Hoffmann? And why is horror literature more than escapism?