The Poet and the University: Stefan George among the Scholars
Edited by Paul Fleming and Peter Uwe Hohendahl
Telos 176 presents a series of essays that explore the history and legacy of the George Circle, the group of influential writers and scholars centered around the poet Stefan George. The active intervention of the poet into the university forms the focus of this special issue of Telos: the living poet as the muse, the motivation, the guide, the instigator, as well as the instructor and teacher for academic research. From classics and philosophy to art history, economics, and political science, and including all the Western European national philologies, members of George’s circle left a deep impression on the scholarly fields defining the humanities and the social sciences.
Introduction
Paul Fleming and Peter Uwe Hohendahl
The Poet as Cultural Savior: Friedrich Gundolf’s Goethe
Ernst Osterkamp
Critic or Prophet? The George Circle Reads Nietzsche
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
“Geheimes Deutschland”: George’s Biopoetics
Carsten Strathausen
Contested Legacies of “German” Friendship: Max Kommerell’s The Poet as Leader in German Classicism
Elke Siegel
Secret Germany / Crooked Germany: Ernst H. Kantorowicz
Paul Fleming
Edgar Salin and Social Theory in the Circle around Stefan George
Russell A. Berman
Ernst H. Kantorowicz as Reflected in His Letters
Janus C. Gudian
“The creature that can still survive”: Walter Benjamin on Mickey Mouse and Rhythmic Movement
Stéphane Symons
Critical Theory of the Contemporary
Brexit, Immigration, and Populism
Russell A. Berman
Brexit, Post-liberalism, and the Politics of Paradox
Adrian Pabst
European Union and Holy Roman Empire
David Pan
A New Special Path for Germany
Jürgen Kocka
The Revolt against the Elites; or, the New Populist Wave: An Interview
Pierre-André Taguieff
