10th Annual Blume Lecture: "On Learning to Love the Darkness from Which I Derive: Dwelling in the Neighborhood of Poetry and Philosophy"

Thompson Room, Barker Center
12 Quincy St.
Cambridge
Thu., Apr. 9, 2026, 4 – 5:45 p.m.



An abstract of the upcoming lecture is available at the web link. Gerhard Richter's research focuses on aesthetic theory and European critical thought since Kant; modern German literature and culture (including photography); the Frankfurt School (especially Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno); the intersections of literary writing and philosophy (especially Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida); contemporary French thought; the theory of translation; the complexities of intellectual, cultural, and political inheritance; and the theory and poetics of survival.

The Berhard Blume Lecture honors Bernhard Blume (1901-1978), Harvard's Kuno Francke Professor of of German Art and Culture until his retirement in 1966. Each year, the Harvard University German Department invites a scholar to foster lively discussions and provide students, faculty, and attendees with the opportunity to engage directly with leading experts in the field.

Gazette Classification: Humanities, Lecture
Organization/Sponsor: Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Speaker(s): Gerhard Richter, L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at Brown University
Contact Info: [email protected]
Harvard Key Required: No
More info: german.fas.harvard.edu…