conflict & communication online, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2021
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

 

 

 

Lina Užukauskaitė
Utopia and resistance thought in Ingeborg Bachmann in correspondence with Ernst Bloch and Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno

Ingeborg Bachmannʼs (1926–1973) conception of utopia moves between the thought models of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977) and Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903–1969). Bachmannʼs utopia is characterized by its relation to reality, by its openness and processuality and thus approaches Bloch’s utopia, the dream forward. That is why utopia should never be understood as “a goal, but [as] a direction” (Robert Musil (1880–1942)). Another characteristic of Bachmannʼs utopia is its “negativity” (Adorno), through which it develops a subversive, critical effect. Bachmannʼs utopian concept and her hope for a humane existence, to which pain experiences are contributed, are connected with her (language-conscious) conception of the beautiful after 1945. In the present article these aesthetic-utopian meanings of the beautiful in Bachmannʼs and Blochʼs work are examined taking into account Adornoʼs aesthetics. Further are brief implicit connections made between the aesthetics of utopia presented in this article and the theory of democracy, epistemology, and also pedagogy.



 

  englischer Volltext in German  
 

 

The author:

Lina Užukauskaitė, Dr. phil. Mag., studied German language and literature, European art history and philosophy at the Universities of Kaunas and Heidelberg (Magistra Artium at the University of Heidelberg). 2015/16 Doctorate at the University of Salzburg. Until 2013 research assistant at the Department of German and Romance Studies at Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas. Since 2017 lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Salzburg. Since 2018 lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. 2018–2021 Researcher at VMU. Further teaching and research stays in Łódź, Germersheim, Freiburg, Riga, Vienna.
Address: University of Salzburg, Faculty of cultural and social sciences, Department of slavonic studies / Comparative literature and cultural studies, Erzabt-Klotz-Str. 1, room 3.413, 5020 Salzburg / Österreich
eMail:  lina.uzukauskaite@plus.ac.at