Tenth Thomas Mann Lecture with Laura de Weck

Programme

Welcome address: Dr Rafael Ball, Director of the ETH Library

Introduction: Prof. Dr Andreas Kilcher, Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, ETH Zurich

Keynote lecture: ‘Only drama would have been worthy of your torments!’ Laura de Weck

Followed by drinks.

Register for the lecture here

Laura de Weck (Hamburg)
As a novelist, Thomas Mann is one of the most widely read German-language authors. As a playwright, however, he is hardly known. This is not surprising: his relationship with the theatre was a difficult one. In 1907, he staged his first and only play, ‘Fiorenza’. The theme is a classic one: asceticism versus sensuality. The structure of the drama, however, is almost post-dramatic: prosaic dialogue, open dramaturgy, and hardly any plot. Contemporary critics reacted negatively. Deeply hurt, Mann denounced the ‘primacy of drama’ over the novel as ‘an act of presumption […], and the aesthetic arguments used to defend it are academic rubbish.’ – Laura de Weck will not only shed light on the writer’s vulnerability, but also on his aesthetic reflections on the impact of drama.

Laura de Weck, herself a playwright and literary critic, presents the television programme ‘Literaturclub’; her plays are staged internationally. Her best-known works include the play ‘Lieblingsmenschen’ and the columns published under the title ‘Politik und Liebe machen’ for the ‘Tages-Anzeiger’ and ‘Bund’. De Weck is a member of the jury for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize and, in 2025, served as a jury member and spokesperson for the German Book Prize

Further information can be found here.