Events | Women In Exile

Los Angeles | March 29, 2014 | 4:00 PM

Discovering a Fascinating Author - The Life and Work of Susan Taubes

To engage with the works of Susan Taubes means to discover a fascinating author whose life reveals disruptions that are paradigmatic for many 20th-century Jewish intellectuals. Born in Budapest in 1928, she immigrated to the USA in 1939 with her father (the psychoanalyst Sándor Feldman). She studied in France, Israel, and in the USA, where she was part of the academic and artistic avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s. 
 
It was not until her suicide in 1969 that she became known as an author with her novel Divorcing (1969), and only recently have her literary remains been made available in an edition initiated by Sigrid Weigel.
 
The correspondence with Jacob Taubes covers the years immediately following their marriage. During this time the philosophy student and the young philosopher of religion were separated geographically: Susan studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, while Jacob was teaching at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The letters vividly document how the twenty-four-year-old’s intellectual life was beginning to gain certain contours. They tell of her work on theological elements in Heidegger’s thought, her critical fascination with Simone Weil’s writings, and her occupation with Albert Camus’ existential philosophy. Moreover, the letters reveal theoretical and personal points of contention between the married couple. Many of these debates revolved around their different relationships towards Judaism and clashing views on the combination of religion and politics; the newly established State of Israel then served as the stage upon which these tensions played out.
 
Introduction by Sigrid Weigel: Discovering a Fascinating Author – Introduction into the Life and Work of Susan Taubes
 
Karola Raimond and Christoph Dostal will read from Susan Taubes’ and Jacob Taubes’ Correspondence (1950-1952)
 
 
Sigrid Weigel, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c., is Director of the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin. She published on Heine, Warburg, Freud, Benjamin, Scholem, Arendt, Bachmann, Susan Taubes, on cultural history, image theory, memory, secularization, genealogy, and the cultural history of sciences. Released recently: "Escape to Life". German Intellectuals in New York. A Compendium on Exile after 1933 (2012); Walter Benjamin. Images, the Creaturly, and the Holy (2013).
 
 
Christoph Dostal was born near Vienna (Austria) and studied acting at the Vienna Conservatory before winning the leading role in Wolfgang Murnberger ́s feature film FOR GOD AND COUNTRY at the age of 22. The film won the Viennese Film Prize and was the official Austrian entry for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.
 
Steven Spielberg cast him for his Award winning TV series BAND OF BROTHERS, directed by Tom Hanks and Tony To. Dostal worked  in film and television in Austria, Germany and Great Britain and  played a leading role in one of the longest running German TV series, FORBIDDEN LOVE, produced out of Cologne.
 
He moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and has so far played leading roles in three independent films, including the award-winning film LILITH, which is  being shown successfully on the festival circuit.
 
Christoph Dostal also wrote and produced two one-man-shows, based on novels by the famous Austrian author Wolf Haas. Christoph Dostal has been performing his shows for many years in Europe, Georgia, Armenia, Mexico, South Korea and the US. Additionally Christoph Dostal is in post production for his first film as a director - a documentary on his first dance teacher and mentor, the legendary African-American dancer Bob Curtis.
 
Karola Raimond was born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany but frequently travelled between the U.S. and Europe, as her mother is a born and bred New Yorker.
 
Trained in ballet and martial arts, she discovered acting during high school and continued her studies while majoring in Media Sociology and Social Psychology at Frankfurt University.
 
After receiving her Masters and publishing her thesis she worked as an on-camera reporter for a Frankfurt news station before returning to acting and landing numerous guest-star roles on German television dramas. She was also a popular Motion Capture actress and worked for all the major European video game manufacturers.
 
Relocating to Los Angeles in 2008, Karola has since studied with some of the industries most esteemed acting coaches (Howard Fine, Steve Eastin, Diana Castle) and landed parts in multiple television, film and commercial projects. 
 

Location: Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272

This event is free of charge. RSVP is required.
Please write an email to infola@villa-aurora.org
or call +1 310.454-4231

Street Parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 3 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North East of Pacific Coast Highway. Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!

All copyrights for the pictures held by the photographers

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