Embodied Crisis: Reimagining Humanity through Philosophy & Performance

Catalog description

Embodied Crisis: Reimagining Humanity through Philosophy & Performance is a cross-disciplinary course that explores how suffering, meaning, and transformation are represented across German philosophy, literature, theatre, poetry, fine art, and cultural festivals. Students engage with Nietzsche's existential thought, phenomenology, and posthuman theory through close readings of philosophical texts, as well as contemporary artworks and curatorial frameworks - such as Berlin's Transmediale Festival 2026. A central focus of the course is the body as a site of crisis, resistance, and renewal. Through engagement with performance works that foreground physical suffering and the limits of embodiment - such as those by Florentina Holzinger or Marina Abramovic - students examine whether posthumanism truly transcends human vulnerability and historical trauma. Assignments include analytical essays, reflective writing, and practical theatre rehearsals that enable students to explore philosophical concepts through embodied expression. This integrated approach encourages both critical and creative responses to the shifting boundaries of human identity in German cultural production, showing how theatre and the arts reflect - and challenge - broader social, political, and philosophical transformations.