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

Werner Michler
"Deeds and Sufferings of Light". Ernst Bloch's essay "The Magic Flute and Symbols of Today" (1930) in context

In exploring the possibilities of renewing Ernst Bloch’s legacy in the arts, education and politics, this paper provides a reading of a lesser known essay, “The Magic Flute and Symbols of Today” (1930). The text is read against its contemporary historical and musico-philosophical background and the actual debates in the avantgarde journal Anbruch. Bloch’s practices of reading and reappraising possibilities are reconstructed, in contrast to those of Adorno. A final section discusses the chances of a Bloch renaissance in the humanities and the social sciences.

The author:

Werner Michler, Prof. Dr. phil. Mag., studied German and Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Habilitation 2012. Since 2013 Professor for Modern German Literature at the University of Salzburg and head of study program for the subject German in the Cluster Mitte (Sbg./OÖ.). – Teaching and research stays in Vienna, Oxford, Münster, Berlin. 2017 - 2020 President of the Austrian Society for German Studies (ÖGG). – Main research interests: Theory and history of literary genres; literature and science; Austrian literature; history and theory of literary translation; basic questions of poetics; literary education. 
Address: Paris-Lodron Universität Salzburg, Fachbereich Germanistik, Erzabt-Klotz-Straße 1
A-5020 Salzburg, Österreich
eMail: werner.michler@plus.ac.at