#1 – 06/10/2016: Men in Dark Times

For our first meeting of the year we will explore what Arendt means by the term "dark times". To do this we will read the opening section of one of Arendt's less popular but nevertheless useful books, her essay collection Men in Dark Times (1968). We will also turn to Arendt's source material for this formulation, Bertolt Brecht's poem 'An die Nachgeborenen/To Those Born Later'.

Truly, I live in dark times!
The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead
Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs
Has simply not yet had
The terrible news.

#1 Hannah Arendt in Dark Times – 06/10/2016, 5–7pm

Primary reading: Hannah Arendt, 'Preface' and 'On Humanity in Dark Times: Thoughts about Lessing', in Men in Dark Times (New York: Harvest, 1968), pp. vii–x; 3–31. Click here for PDF.
Secondary reading: Bertolt Brecht, 'An die Nachgeborenen/To Those Born Later', in Bertolt Brecht: Poetry and Prose, ed. by Rheinhold Grimm and Caroline Molina y Vedia (New York and London: Continuum, 2006) Click here for PDF.
Location: LHRI, Seminar Room 1 


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