Herrenhausen Conversation in Hanover How can literature help in times of crisis?
With the “Biblio Home Therapy”, the moderator Ulrich Kühn remarks during the “Herrenhausen Conversation” about the role of literature in times of crisis, it has become difficult. The word “crisis” outshone everything – even the evening with wine and a book. Times are dark too. Still: “Do novels offer consolation? Despite everything? ”Asks Kühn.
What stories can help in dark times?
Lars Koch, professor of media studies and modern German literature in Dresden, and Friedrich von Borries, professor of design theory in Hamburg and author. Irina Dumitrescu from Toronto speaks up via video messenger. She is a professor at the Institute for English, American and Celtic Studies at the University of Bonn.
Of course, the scientists and scientists do not have a simple answer. “It’s not that the reader is drawn to art,” says Dumitrescu. Seeing art as a tool for social change – she is skeptical about that. It’s about the “individual encounter with the novel.” Netflix – entertainment and enjoyment in general – are a good thing for them. “You also need entertainment to stay rational and healthy. Entertainment can be serious too, ”she says. “Literature is a very helpful tool to straighten us cognitively.”
“How do you get along in a world that is falling apart?”
For Koch, however, storytelling is more of a double-edged sword. “How do you get along in a world that is falling apart?” He asks. “People look to the world through cultural ones. They shape the way we look at the world. ”Looking at lateral thinkers, he says:“ There are people who are completely overwhelmed, who are a little bit afraid. Storytelling is a way out for them. ”Fiction, says Koch, could save lives – but not always. “That can also be pretty dangerous.”
“If everything goes well, you don’t need alternative narratives,” says Friedrich von Borries. At the moment, however, big political stories are no longer in demand. “Politicians are more like administrators. Something like the slogan ‘dare to progress’ is already excess. We need stronger political narratives. ”Art could help“ make the life situations that we are confronted with and with which we are overwhelmed, more tangible. In the next few years there will be an art that WILL help us to deal with it. ”That would take a while, however. “This is also because we don’t yet know what kind of crisis it is. Because that is not yet clear, the narratives are not there yet. “
Literature is not the great crisis liberator
This edition of the “Herrenhausen Talks” is also abstract, and the three guests expand the subject very quickly. In the end, it’s not just about novels, but about narratives in general, be they fiction or not. The three of them agree that stories can be lifesaving and comforting – as well as the fact that it can be worth bogging down in front of the TV at home every now and then. However, the three also agree that literature should not act as a great liberator from crises. “We have to admit to the literature that something cannot be evaluated or used,” says von Borries. “Especially in a society in which everything else can be used.”
The next “Herrenhausen Talk” on January 11th at 8:30 pm will deal with the topic: “Insects on the plate – mealworms and grasshoppers as food of the future?”
From Jan Fischer