Struggling Critique / Struggling Film

Under the heading Struggling Critique the first afternoon and evening will focus on various forms and histories of critique of Zionism from a Jewish perspective including specters of guilt, antisemitism, moral positioning and the discourses of social justice in the post WWII context. Starting with a talk by Eric Jacobson entitled "Ethics for an unmade world: Holocaust, Palestine and the Critique of Zionism". Zu Hannah Arendt's "Philosophie ohne Geländer" the Workshop will consider texts by Hanna Arendt, Jacqueline Rose, Ilan Pappe, and a film by Avi Mograbi.
Struggling Film, the second day, will concentrate on the impossible, unmade or "lost" film as a form of articulation vis-à-vis the politics of history, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and psychological conditions and consider Miéville/Godard's Ici et Ailleurs and texts on essay films and experimental cinema. Both days leave space for discussions and allow for specific focus to emerge from the interests and questions brought to the space by the participants.

Eric Jacobson, born 1969 in New York, graduated from the Freie Universität Berlin. He is Professor for Jewish Studies at the University of Roehampton, London and previously held the Kurt-David-Brühl guest professorship for Jewish Studies at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz. Among his publications are Metaphysics of the Profane: The Political Theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem (New York: Columbia University Press), Das Kunstwerk und die Erinnerung: Dem Vergagenen im Bild eine Präsenz geben (Graz: Leykam Verlag) and Weiterwohnlichkeit der Welt. Zur Aktualität von Hans Jonas, co-edited with C. Wiese (Berlin: PhiloVerlag).