Book club Politics and Literature: Literary Work and Work Collectives

In the ‘Politics and Literature’ book club, we address the topic of ‘Literary Labour and Labour Collectives’. We ask how capitalist, alienated, exploited labour appears in literature, but also what literary representation does with these forms of labour. We start from the assumption that labour can always enable other forms of social interaction: forms of solidarity and togetherness that go beyond what we usually experience in our work. Regardless of whether we are talking about solitary work at a desk, isolated craftsmanship or temporary work in hospital corridors or logistics centres. In the book club, we look for literary forms of these other forms of togetherness at work.

The book club is a cooperation of our ZfL team (Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research) with the Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus in Berlin. It is organised over a nine-month period (Oct. 2024-June 2025), with one meeting per month.

More information (in German).