Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Professor Mark Gelber (Ph.D.
Yale University) recently gave two guest lectures in Wellington at Victoria
University. The lecture series was initiated by Dr. Monica Tempian from the
School of Languages and Cultures at Victoria University and was proudly
supported by the Embassy of Israel.
The first lecture was on “The Concept of World Literature
and Translations Studies,” focuses on the scholarly publications of the
American scholar David Damrosch (What is World Literature? 2003; How to Read
World Literature, 2009). The second lecture, titled “Multilingualism and
Interculturality,” focused on two specific authors: Stefan Zweig and Franz
Kafka.
Professor Mark H. Gelber's visit was generously supported by
the Goethe-Institute New Zealand and the Embassy of Israel in New Zealand.
Prof. Mark H. Gelber is Director of the Center for Austrian
and German Studies at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He has researched and published
extensively on topics related to 20th century Jewish-German literature,
literary anti-Semitism and the cultural legacy of central European Jewry. His
most recent publications include: Stefan Zweig -Jüdische Relationen. Studien zu
Werk und Biographie (Stefan Zweig - Jewish Relationships. Studies to His Work
and Biography, co-edited with Elisabeth Erdem and Klemens Renoldner, Würzburg:
2017); Jewish Aspects in Avant-Garde. Between Rebellion and Revelation
(co-edited with Sami Sjoberg, Berlin: 2017). In 2018, the Republic of Austria
selected Mark Gelber to receive the Austrian Medal of Honor in Science and Art,
First Class (Österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst, 1.
Klasse).
Photo Courtesy of Dr Monica Tempian, with Prof. Mark Gelber
and Israel Ambassador to New Zealand Ambassador Dr Itzhak Gerberg.