Universität KonstanzExzellenzcluster „Kulturelle Grundlagen von Integration“

Geoffrey Hartman To Receive Honorary Doctorate from the University of Konstanz

16. July 2009

The literary scholar Geoffrey Hartman (Yale University) will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Konstanz.

The honorary doctorate will be awarded to him on Wednesday, 22 July 2009 (at 4:00 pm), in the Senatsaal V1001 at the University of Konstanz by Rector Gerhart von Graevenitz. Following the laudatio by Konstanz scholar of English literature Aleida Assmann, Professor Geoffrey Hartman will hold a special lecture, the first in the new Wolfgang Iser Lecture series, on the topic of "Cultural Memory, The Story Event and Contemporary Passion Narratives."

Geoffrey Hartman is one of the most renowned literary scholars in the world. His academic work, which is important for scholars of English, German, and Romance literatures, encompasses the new developments in these disciplines over the last fifty years. Hartman’s work has remained groundbreaking throughout this period, enriching and influencing literary studies internationally. He has been closely associated with the University of Constance since its founding, having repeatedly visited and sponsored exchanges.

Wolfgang Iser Lecture

The scholar of English literature, Wolfgang Iser, who died in 2007, was a leading representative of literary-theoretical “Constance School” that was internationally renowned. This tradition is now being remembered through the newly established Wolfgang Iser Lecture that will take place annually. Each of the lectures to be given seeks to explain literary scholarship from philosophical, cultural-scientific and anthropological perspectives.