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INSTITUTE OF MODERN LANGUAGES RESEARCH University of London School of Advanced Study Thursday, 9 June 2016 5.15 for 5.45 pm ENGLISH GOETHE SOCIETY Ida Herz Lecture Eckhard Goebel (Tübingen): 'Das Entremets war eine Himbeercrème': Zur Bedeutung der Farbe Rosa in Lotte in Weimar The lecture illustrates how the colour pink serves as a leitmotif in Thomas Mann's first novel on Germany written in exile in 1938. With his subtle and highly artistic use of this colour, Mann paid tribute to the origin of Goethe's Werther: 'The first version of Goethe's first novel pivots obsessively around the pregnant detail of a "flesh-coloured ribbon" that young Werther takes from his beloved's dress.' In Lotte in Weimar the use of pink is an erotic signifier, celebrating women's charm and flourishing beauty, thus defending a serene life and the uniting force of Eros against the ideology of 'blood and soil' in Hitler's Germany. Mann wrenches both Goethe the poet, and Goethe the lover, from their abuse by National Socialist ideology. The attention to pink and rose also foreshadows the motif of the transparent butterfly in Doctor Faustus about which British entomologist Henry Walter Bates had written: 'One of these clear-wings is especially beautiful - namely, the Hetaira Esmeralda; it has one spot only of opaque colouring on its wings, which is of a violet and rose hue; this is the only part visible when the insect is flying low over dead leaves, in the gloomy shades where alone it is found, and then it looks like a wandering petal of a flower.' The lecture will be given in German. Venue: Room 243, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU ALL WELCOME Jane Lewin IMLR Trusts Administrator/Events Manager Institute of Modern Languages Research University of London School of Advanced Study Room 239, Senate House Malet Street, GB- London WC1E 7HU Telephone 0044 (0)20 7862 8966 Website http://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk The University of London is an exempt charity in England and Wales. We have cut carbon emissions from University buildings by 32% and are committed to cutting emissions by 43% by 2020. Please think before you print.