Critical Theory and Surreal Practice: A Conversation with Elisabeth Lenk and Rita Bischof

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In 1962, a politically active Elisabeth Lenk moved to Paris and persuaded Theodor W. Adorno to supervise her sociology dissertation on the surrealists. Adorno, though critical of Surrealism, agreed. The Challenge of Surrealism presents their correspondence, written between 1962 and Adorno’s death in 1969, set against the backdrop of Adorno and Walter Benjamin’s disagreement about the present possibilities of future political action, crystallization, and the dialectical image. The letters offer a fresh portrait of Adorno and expand upon his view of Surrealism and the student movements in 1960s France and Germany, while Lenk’s essays and Bischof’s introduction argue that there is a legitimate connection between Surrealism and political resistance that still holds true today. Please join us at the Hannah Arendt Center for a conversation with Elisabeth Lenk and Rita Bischof to celebrate the English translation of The Challenge of Surrealism: The Correspondence of Theodor W. Adorno and Elisabeth Lenk. 

Elisabeth Lenk is a German literary scholar and sociologist. She studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Frankfurt and turned down the offer of an assistantship with Adorno to move to Paris, where she met André Breton and became a member of the surrealist group. Later, she was an assistant to Helge Pross and Peter Szondi and since 1976 Professor of Literature (now emerita) at the University of Hanover. She is the author of collections of essays on Adorno, surrealist aesthetics, and other subjects.

Rita Bischof studied philosophy, sociology and literature in Frankfurt, Marburg and Berlin. She conducted research in Paris and Florence and taught at various universities. Bischof has published numerous books and articles, among other things about Georges Bataille, Walter Benjamin and Surrealism. Her most recent book, Nadja revisited, includes letters and drawings by Léona Delcourt alias Nadja.  She is a freelance writer living in Berlin.

Susan H. Gillespie is founding director of the Institute for International Liberal Education at Bard College, where she is Vice President for Special Global Initiatives. Her translations from German to English include numerous works by Theodor W. Adorno and the poetry of Paul Celan. 

Samantha Rose Hill received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2014. Her research and teaching interests include critical theory, the Frankfurt School, aesthetic theory, poetic thinking, and German literature. She recently joined Bard College as a Hannah Arendt Center Post Doctoral Fellow and teaches in the Political Studies Program.

Location: (click for directions)
Hannah Arendt Center
1448 Annandale Road, Bard College

Time: 3pm
Free & Open To the Public
Kaffee und Kuchen will be served!