Goldsmiths - University of London

Professor Alexander Düttmann

In the past, my research has focused on the relationship between language and history in authors such as Adorno, Benjamin and Heidegger. I have also been interested in the question of political deconstruction - especially in the context of identity politics (AIDS activism, recognition and multiculturalism). I have examined the notion of the end of art and developed it in a sense different from Hegel; and I have made several attempts at discussing the relationship between philosophy and exaggeration (particularly with respect to factuality, truth and trust). Eight years ago, I collaborated with photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg on a book. This collaboration led me to write the libretto for a chamber opera performed at the ICA in London. In a recent study I analyse Luchino Visconti's films in the light of Adorno's idea that it is never the real but always the possible that blocks the path to utopia. My latest publication outlines the very idea of deconstruction. This book includes a personal memoir in which I ask what it means to have a philosopher as a teacher. Currently, my research centres around the concept of participation in art.

Academic qualifications

Dr. Phil (Frankfurt)
MA (Frankfurt)

Selected publications

Derrida and I (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2008)

Visconti: Insights Of Flesh And Blood (Kadmos: Berlin, 2006; BLOK: Zagreb 2006; Stanford UP: Stanford, 2008)

That's It: A Philosophical Commentary on Adorno's 'Minima Moralia' (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2004)

Erase the Traces (Zurich and Berlin: Diaphanes, 2004)

Philosophy of Exaggeration (Suhrkamp, 2004, London and New York: Continuum, 2007)

The Memory of Thought: An Essay on Heidegger and Adorno (Suhrkamp 1991; Continuum 2002)

Art from End to End (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2000)

Liebeslied / My Suicides (in collaboration with Rut Blees Luxemburg, London, 2000)

Between Cultures. Tension in the Struggle for Recognition (Suhrkamp 1997; Verso 2000)

Friends and Enemies. The Absolute (Vienna: Turia and Kant 1999; Tokyo: Gestuyosha Limited, 2002; Mama: Zagreb 2003)

At odds with Aids (Fischer 1993; Stanford 1997, Anaya: Madrid 1997)