German Studies Program and Hannah Arendt Center present:
Lecture by Barbara Hahn
Writing with/to Friends: Rahel Levin Varnhagen's -Ein Buch des Andenkens fur ihre Freunde.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Olin, Room 102
7:00 pm
Professor Barbara Hahn is one of the most distinguished literary scholars in the U.S. She has published works on Hannah Arendt, German Romanticism, Walter Benjamin, German-Jewish relations, and Studies on Women in Culture. Hahn is also the editor-in-chief of Rahel Levin Varnhagen's "Complete Works", a critical-historical edition.
Rahel Levin Varnhagen is regarded as one of the core intellectuals at the turn of the 19th century. Her Salon in Berlin was frequented by such luminaries as Goethe, Heine, and the Humboldt brothers, to name a few. Varnhagen's stunningly sharp and delicate reflections on her time were mostly written in letters to her friends. Thanks to Barbara Hahn, this treasure has been preserved and will be presented at Bard College based on Varnhagen's masterpiece "A Book of Remembrance for Her Friends." Professor Hahn's groundbreaking six volume edition of this book received the highest honors in Germany and beyond, including the Times Literary Supplement.