Stefani Engelstein: Love, in Theory… Sexual Love and the Dynamics of Polarity in Fichte, Schelling, and Günderrode
Vortrag im Rahmen der MvBZ Lectures in Feminist Theory an der Freien Universität Berlin
Love would seem to be the third rail of theory—too vague, too discredited, too personal to be examined directly, much less provocative and interesting than anger or hate. And yet it is ubiquitous in theories of gender, sociality, the interpersonal, and the political. Focusing on Fichte, Schelling, and Günderrode, this talk will explore the way emerging modern polar views of the sexes and of sexual love were integrated into generational dynamics to serve the production of distinctly modern ideologies of social, species, and ontological wholes. The talk will also unearth the glitches or productive detours in these thinkers that point towards alternate possibilities.
Die Literaturwissenschaftlerin Stefani Engelstein ist Guggenheim Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow und Fulbright Scholar mit dem Projekt Geschlecht und Gegensatz.