Symposium on 16 and 17 May 2026
Contemporary culture is populated by motifs, character types and narrative logics that can be traced back to Romanticism. For example, what is discussed today under the heading of "artificial intelligence" is in a line of tradition with the motif of the artificial human (for example, E. T. A. Hoffmann's Olimpia from his fairy tale "The Sandman", the Homunculus in "Faust II" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein").
The pop-cultural imaginations of vampirism, witchcraft and the "magical" seductive arts of the femme fatale also find their starting point in images developed by authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Ludwig and Sophie Tieck, Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in the so-called "Black Romanticism". The remakes of Frankenstein and Nosferatu in 2025 prove that these figures still have an impact.
The symposium is dedicated to these connections. Six lectures will shed light on the (popular) cultural heritage of Gothic Romanticism in the 20th and 21st centuries from a cultural studies and philosophical perspective. The contributions will focus, for example, on David Lynch's films, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels and the neopagan feminism of Kiki Rockwell's songs.
- Admission: €10 per day, reduced €8
- Please book in good time online or by calling the Visitor Service of the Museums of the City of Dresden on 0351 488 7272 (MO - FR).
The event is a co-operation between the Kügelgenhaus and the International Tieck Society.
