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520650-HS2026-0-Thinking as Intervention: On the History of Intellectuals in the 19th and 20th Centuries





Root number 520650
Semester HS2026
Type of course Proseminar
Allocation to subject History
Type of exam not defined
Title Thinking as Intervention: On the History of Intellectuals in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Description This proseminar provides an overview of the history of intellectuals in the 19th and 20th centuries. The 20th century has been described as the “century of the intellectuals” (Michel Winock). But who an intellectual is, what actually defines and characterizes this social figure, and what social role intellectuals should or must play – these questions have always been controversial and subject to change, ever since the term was first coined in France at the end of the 19th century in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair and the public interventions of the writer Émile Zola. The social figure of the intellectual has been linked in many ways to the crises of modern history. While some viewed intellectuals as independent and critical barometers of their time, the history of the 19th and 20th centuries also provides ample evidence of intellectuals’ proximity to power and domination—extending even to the “architects of annihilation” in the context of National Socialism (Götz Aly/Susanne Heim). Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, the social figure of the intellectual underwent correspondingly complex waves of change, while at the same time specific types and variants emerged. This proseminar will explore the historical origins of these diverse and competing ideas, as well as the tensions that arose between intellectuals, social and economic conditions, political systems, and evolving political cultures in the 19th and 20th centuries.
ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course) Registrations are transmitted from CTS to ILIAS (no admission in ILIAS possible). ILIAS
Link to another web site
Lecturers Dr. Juri Auderset, Institute of History, 19th & 20th Century History ✉
Manuel Nicolas Angel Kellner, Institute of History, 19th & 20th Century History ✉
ECTS 6
Recognition as optional course possible No
Grading 1 to 6
 
Dates Wednesday 14:15-16:00 Weekly
 
Rooms
 
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