Category Archives: Bildung

Interpretive and attentive reading as modern spiritual exercises in self-rule

The exercises of interpretation have been one of my central cultural and scholarly interests.  I consider interpretation a major spiritual technology empowering the modern self to practice ethical self-rule as duty and submission.  My studies of classical listening in this … Continue reading

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The messianic critique of tragedy*

The rejection of the covenant of assimilation by twentieth-century Messianism was an integral part of the pre-1914 pan-European critique of modernity and “romantic anti-capitalism” (Lukács). “In the years approaching the First World War, the self-confidence and security of German Jewry … Continue reading

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“Η ποιητική ως πολιτική θεωρία: Ήττα, απόγνωση και μελαγχολία στη μετεμφυλιακή αριστερή ποίηση”

[Ανακοίνωση στην εξαίρετη διημερίδα “Το περιοδικό Σημειώσεις: Άνθρωποι, πολιτικές, θεωρίες” στις 28 Οκτωβρίου 2017 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.  Στο βίντεο της συνεδρίας το οποίο αναρτήθηκε στο ΦΒ η ομιλία είναι στο 31:00-1:00:00. Αναδημοσιεύθηκε στο ZHN: ThePressProject Magazine στις 11 Νοεμβρίου 2017.] Με την μελέτη … Continue reading

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Are there any Greeks in this publication? (2)

This year the contemporary art exhibition Documenta 14 has been taking place not only in the German city of Kassel, as had been the case every five years since 1955, but also in Athens. Its title, Learning from Athens, cites … Continue reading

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The emergence of Listening as a practice in the early 19th century

I have always been very interested in the disciplinary regimes of artistic production (such as the arts) and the hermeneutical control of their explication (such as the readings of arts). I have published an entire book on literary interpretation as … Continue reading

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The concerto as ‘Bildungsroman’

Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto (1909) can be interpreted by both soloist and listener as a supreme Bildungsroman. I become fully aware of this approach when I watch the possessed Daniil turning the concerto into a bravura self-formation. He is enacting … Continue reading

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