Lecture on Chamisso's "Peter Schlemihl"

Professor Hamilton's reading of Peter Schlemihl's Wondrous Story by Adelbert von Chamisso invited us to reflect on our current culture of convenience, driven by technological advancement. His analysis of the 1814 novella examines the varied significations of the term "convenience" and discusses the value of saving time, effort, and energy, with a view toward current moral and ethical predicaments.

John T. Hamilton is the William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Harvard. He is the author of Philology of the Flesh (Chicago, 2018); Security: Politics, Humanity, and the Philology of Care (Princeton, 2013); Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language (Columbia, 2008); and Soliciting Darkness: Pindar, Obscurity, and the Classical Tradition (Harvard, 2003).