Käte Hamburger was a Germanist, literary scholar and philosopher. She was a professor at the University of Stuttgart

University of Stuttgart

The University of Stuttgart is a university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized in 10 faculties....

.

Käte Hamburger earned her doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 in 1922 in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. Expelled by the Nazis because of her Jewish heritage, she immigrated to Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 in 1934 and returned to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 from her exile first in 1956. After having been active in Sweden as a language teacher, journalist, and writer, she wrote on her return to, among others, Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...

 and Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...

 at the University of Stuttgart.

Above all, her theoretical examination Die Logik der Dichtung (German: The Logic of Poetry) established her international status within the field of literary theory

Literary theory

Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...

. Along with Eberhard Lämmert and also Franz Karl Stanzel

Franz Karl Stanzel

Franz Karl Stanzel is an Austrian literary theorist, specialised in English literature.After finishing his degree with Herbert Koziol in Graz and after his habilitation in 1955, he was professor in Göttingen. In 1959 he was offered a position as professor in Erlangen. In 1962 he succeeded Koziol...

, Käte Hamburger advanced the systematic reorientation of Germanistics in Germany in the 1950s towards a rational and analytic methodology.

Literature

• Käte Hamburger: Die Logik der Dichtung, 4. Aufl., Stuttgart 1994. - ISBN 3-608-91681-4
• Käte Hamburger: Wahrheit und ästhetische Wahrheit, Stuttgart 1979. - ISBN 3-129-33230-8
• Käte Hamburger: Das Mitleid, Stuttgart 1985. - ISBN 3-608-91392-0
• Querelles. Jahrbuch für Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Bd. 8, Johanna Bossinade und Angelika Schaser (Hg.): Käte Hamburger. Zur Aktualität einer Klassikerin, Göttingen 2003. - ISBN 3-89244-650-4

External links

• Literatur von und über Käte Hamburger in the catalogue of die Deutsche Bibliothek
• Fem-Biographie: Käte Hamburger