READING AND DISCUSSION
WHEN
WHERE
der buchladen
Försterstraße 14 | 66111 Saarbrücken
LANGUAGE
GERMAN
PROGRAMME
In the Cour d’honneur of the prestigious Collège de France in Paris stands a statue of Jean-François Champollion, the man who deciphered hieroglyphs. The visual semantics of this statue, created by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, are contradictory: intended as a heroic monument to the pursuit of knowledge, it is nonetheless marked by a tragic shadow that is crucial for understanding what it represents. Acclaimed for deciphering hieroglyphs and for inaugurating a new history of humankind, Champollion was deeply shaped – during encounters with members of the Osage Nation in Paris and his travels in Egypt – by his experience of the devastation resulting from colonialism. These experiences were closely connected to the global awareness that made his rise to prominence possible. Champollion’s doubts and deeds raise, and the history of his memory, raise questions that Markus Messling explores in his reflection on the social foundations of contemporary Europe.
Markus Messling. Kulturtod und Reparation. Der Fall Champollion. Matthes & Seitz, 2026 (Fröhliche Wissenschaft). Also published as volume 1 of the new series Reparations, published by the Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University.
Moderated by Niklas Bender (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung/Saarland University)
The reading and discussion will be followed by a reception.
IN COOPERATION WITH
Matthes & Seitz Berlin, der buchladen and Institut d’études françaises Saarbrücken.
