Bram Mertens
Lecturer in German and Dutch, Faculty of Arts
Contact
Teaching Summary
I teach across all levels in a range of areas from the history of ideas and Jewish studies to the history and culture of the Low Countries and Dutch language. Modules I have recently taught include:
R23228 Jewish Intellectuals in Germany 1830-1940
R21124 Culture and Society of the Low Countries
R21125 History of the Low Countries
R21126 Dutch Language I
R22253 Dutch Language II
R23266 Dutch Language III
As of 2011-2012, I will be teaching new modules on post-war Belgian cinema and politics and identity in the Low Countries. I am happy to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on any of the areas listed above, or in German thought from Kant to Heidegger.
Research Summary
My research focuses on the nature of Walter Benjamin's epistemology and its development throughout his work, investigating its origins, influences and degree to which it can be systematised. In this… read more
Recent Publications
MERTENS, B., 2012. Der Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik: Walter Benjamin’s epistemological exercise book. In: CARROLL, JEROME, GILES, STEVE and OERGEL, MAIKE, eds., Aesthetics and Modernity: From Schiller to the Frankfurt School Peter Lang. 255-274
MERTENS, B., 2009. German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust: Kafka’s Kitsch (review) Journal of Jewish Studies. 60(2), 364
MERTENS, B., 2007. Dark images, secret hints: Benjamin, Scholem, Molitor and the Jewish tradition Bern: P. Lang.
MERTENS, B., 2006. "Hope, yes, but not for us": Messianism and redemption in the work of Walter Benjamin. In: CRISTAUDO, W. and BAKER, W., eds., Messianism, apocalypse and redemption in 20th century German thought Adelaide: ATF Press. 63-77
Current Research
My research focuses on the nature of Walter Benjamin's epistemology and its development throughout his work, investigating its origins, influences and degree to which it can be systematised. In this context, I am currently looking into Benjamin's reception of Kant, Fichte, Schlegel and Novalis in his earlier work.
Other research interests include German philosophy since Kant, especially the Early Romantics, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin and Heidegger.
Past Research
My doctoral thesis Das Denken der Lehre: Walter Benjamin, Franz Joseph Molitor and the Jewish Tradition (2001) examined the influence of the Jewish tradition on the work of Walter Benjamin, mediated through the writings of the nineteenth-century catholic kabbalist Franz Joseph Molitor, notably his four-volume magnum opus Philosophie der Geschichte (1827-1853). I have since published a book, Dark Images, Secret Hints (2007), and a series of articles on the role of Judaism in the work of Walter Benjamin and the influence of his friendship with Gershom Scholem.