Culture and its Monsters

A seminar by Dr Clemens Ruthner and Prof Mary Cosgrove (Department of German, TCD) as a part of the School of Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series (SLLCS).

Prof Mary Cosgrove will be in conversation with Dr Clemens Ruthner (both TCD Dept of German Studies) on the occasion of his most recent book publication Die Kultur und ihre Ungeheuer, Vienna, Turia+Kant, 2024.
How “monstrous” is the cultural change in the modern age, where literature and other genres have become “creative industries”? What role do the canon and other cultural boundaries play in this? These are the central questions that drive the theoretical texts in Clemens Ruthners book Die Kultur und ihre Ungeheuer. The starting point is a theory of the fantastic in literature and a definition of liminality as a secret driving force for the constant self-renewal of culture in the in-between zones and at the margins: it generates borderline values and is thus structurally always latently otherworldly. The ethical consequences of this aesthetic of border-crossing are increasingly a challenge for politics.

Dr Clemens Ruthner is an Associate Professor in German and a Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, since 2022 Director of the TCD Center for European Studies . His research focuses on Austrian literature, the late Habsburg monarchy (postcolonial studies), otherness and cultural theory.

The School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series (SLLCS) promotes Literary and Cultural Studies, including political and social thought, narratology and imagology, film, textual and visual studies, questions surrounding language learning and translation studies, and also practice-led research. We encourage comparative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, as our intellectual inquiry is in the service of national and international debate and knowledge advancement, particularly on the construction of identity and otherness in literature and culture. The seminar series provides a forum for the dissemination and exchange of current and developing research from staff and postgraduate researchers within the school, and also from national and international guest speakers.

Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: ahmedm4@tcd.ie