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Root number
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7019 |
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Semester
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HS2020 |
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Type of course
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Colloquium |
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Allocation to subject
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Theology |
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Type of exam
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not defined |
| Title |
Sozietät für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie: Distortion of memory - or: About the desire to be a victim (the so-called Wilkomirski syndrome) |
| Description |
''Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.'' This famous sentence of the Jewish scholar Baal Shem Tov articulates the great importance of remembrance and commemoration in Judaism and – following on from this – also in Christianity. But what if the memories are unconsciously or deliberately falsified, if they are even implanted from outside as pseudo-memories? What if a life narrative is invented - be it to cope with a trauma, be it because the victim role fascinates, be it to acquire a desirable Jewish identity?!
“With Judaism, I had received the most beautiful gift of which a child after the war could have dreamed. I inherited a suffering that I had not suffered; I kept the character of persecution but I had not endured the oppression. I was able to enjoy in serenity an exceptional destiny. Without exposing myself to real danger, I had the format of a ‘hero’.” These lines by Alain Finkielkraut could also have been written by Benjamin Wilkomirski, although he is not Jewish. Wilkomirski's real name is Bruno Dösseker, he was born in 1941 as an illegitimate child and comes from a small Swiss village. Nevertheless, the clarinet teacher decided at some point to escape his former life and to trace memories that had never existed. Step by step, Dösseker transformed himself into a Jew, a victim, one who lost his parents as a child in Auschwitz, was smuggled into Switzerland after the war, raised there by foster parents, and finally caught up with the past, indeed threatened to be crushed by it, until he was able to free himself from the burden of the past by writing. Wilkomirski's memories (Bruchstücke. Aus einer Kindheit 1939–1948, Frankfurt a. M. 1995, engl.: Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood 1939-1948, Schocken 1997) became a bestseller; he himself became a moral authority – until the Swiss writer Daniel Ganzfried revealed his true identity. Since then, this phenomenon of falsification of memory, in which someone acquires a Jewish victim identity, has been called Wilkomirski Syndrome.
Using three case studies and with theoretical texts from psychology and philosophy, theology and Jewish studies, journalism and literary studies, the ST-Sozietät dedicates itself to this phenomenon and would like to investigate the connection between memory and trauma, between the narrative of life and truth, the fascination of the victim role, the desire for a Jewish identity and questions such as: Does the uncovering of the "false identity" also make the work wrong? In addition to the case of Benjamin Wilkomirski alias Bruno Grosjaen-Dösseker (*1941), the life stories of the artist Rosemary Koczy (1939-2007) and the historian and award-winning blogger Marie Sophie Hingst (1987-2019) will also be discussed.
A detailed schedule, a bibliography and the obligatory literature will be posted on ILIAS until the end of August at the latest. |
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ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course)
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Registrations are transmitted from CTS to ILIAS (no admission in ILIAS possible).
ILIAS
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Link to another web site
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| Lecturers |
Prof. Dr.
Luca Daniele Di Blasi, Institute of Systematic Theology ✉
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Prof. Dr.
Magdalene Luise Frettlöh, Institute of Systematic Theology ✉
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ECTS
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1 |
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Recognition as optional course possible
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Yes |
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Grading
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passed/failed |
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| Dates |
Wednesday 23/9/2020 18:15-20:00
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Wednesday 21/10/2020 18:15-20:00
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Wednesday 25/11/2020 18:15-20:00
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Wednesday 16/12/2020 18:15-20:00
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| Rooms |
Seminarraum F 002, Hörraumgebäude Unitobler
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| Students please consult the detailed view for complete information on dates, rooms and planned podcasts. |
User:
Öffentlicher Bereich
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