Topics in German Culture and Society : Charisma: Politics, Aesthetics, Media

The magical personal relations associated with the term “charisma” originally referred not to a political category but a dynamic in interwar Germany’s literary cults. How did a poetic phenomenon become a political one? What are the figures, metaphors, or narratives through which the mystery of charisma has been described? We will explore how early 20th c. German culture represented charisma as an occult phenomenon, erotic seduction, drug-like intoxication, a result of financial crisis, or a media effect. We will also study the role of charisma in debates about whether today’s world resembles that of the Weimar years. Taught in German.