Kafka-drawing. Source: Wikimedia commons.
Join us on February 11 at 12:30pm for our first in-person Ziegler Lecture of 2025. Focusing on the theme of ‘dissent’, CENES welcomes dr. phil Søren R. Fauth from Aarhus University.
Title: “Transcendence of the human far beyond AI. Kafka’s In the Penal Colony and Schopenhauerian Eschatology”
Abstract: Since the Renaissance, humanity has aspired beyond the human. The technological development in recent decades has been extraordinary, leading to new attempts to overcome the all-too-human conditions. We dream of conquering death, upgrading our bodies into perfect performance machines, and enhancing our intelligence through bio-nanotechnology. We are familiar with the side effects: alienation, stress, anxiety, depression. This lecture contends that Franz Kafka’s enigmatic body of work at its core harbors a yearning to transcend the human. Through a close reading of the narrative In the Penal Colony, it is demonstrated that this yearning is far more radical, uncompromising and norm-dissenting than any modern vision of extending and optimizing human life. Instead of the modern ego-concerned affirmation of life and the body that hides behind much of AI, modern technology, and ideology, Kafka seeks a radical vision of total transformation and transcending the human into ‘nothingness’.
The lecture shows that this transformation corresponds to core concepts in Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy, primarily his doctrine of the denial of the will to live and asceticism. Instead of the species-narcissistic affirmation of life and the body that lurks behind much of AI and modern technology, Kafka strives for a definitive overcoming of the life we desire.
About the Speaker
Søren R. Fauth is a professor and dr.phil. in German Studies at Aarhus University, as well as a well-renowned Danish poet, playwright, and translator. His research centers on German-language philosophy and literature with a special focus on Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, R.M.R. Rilke, amongst others. His translation activities include translations of the works of Austrian Thomas Bernhard and Arthur Schopenhauer into Danish.
How to Attend
This lecture will be hosted on February 11, 2025, at 12:30pm in Buchanan Tower room 997. Please note that this lecture will be recorded.
