After Cinepoetics held a symposium on Hanna Arendt's political theory, titled "Politics and Poetics", in Summer 2017 in Berlin, David N. Rodowick invited us to the University of Chicago Center in Paris where we continued our discussion with focus on "The Public Sphere and the Common Sense." As a cooperation between Cinepoetics, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Chicago, the symposium gathered a group of renowned experts on Arendt’s writings. Thus, we were able to discuss principal topics in her work extensively that are of importance for the work of Cinepoetics, among them: thinking, judging, sensus communis, the relation of arts and politics as well as her concept of the 'Weltbetrachter.'

To prepare for the symposium, the shared reading material included The Crisis in Culture, Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture, Introduction to The Life of The Mind as well as extracts from Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy und Kant's Kritik der Urteilskraft. Each of the principal topics were introduced through a short statement by Thomas Bartscherer, David N. Rodowick, Hermann Kappelhoff, Barbara Hahn, and James McFarland. The discussants then related these introductions to their own reading experience and collective scholarly fields (as there were scholars from Film Studies, German Studies, Philosophy, and Publishing Studies).

Participants:

Thomas Bartscherer (Bard College, New York), Hanno Berger (Vanderbilt University), Regina Brückner (Cinepoetics), Wout Cornelissen (Vanderbilt University), Barbara Hahn (Vanderbilt University), Hermann Kappelhoff (Cinepoetics), Ingo Kieslich (Vanderbilt University), Susanne Lüdemann (LMU München), James McFarland (Vanderbilt University), Christian Pischel (Freie Universität Berlin), David N. Rodowick (University of Chicago), Christina Schmitt (Cinepoetics), Michael Wedel (Cinepoetics), Thomas Wild (Bard College, New York)