Exchange Talk: Innocent Love and Escalating Violence

Exploring similar themes to some of our drama performances this term (Let The Right One In, Blood Wedding, and Sweeny Todd), this talk will discuss the human fascination with ultra violent conflict in relation to love stories using the example of the early 19th Prussian author Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811). Making use of two of his short stories The Earthquake in Chile (1807) and The Betrothal of St. Domingo (1811), the talk with discuss how both texts deal with the limits of perception and human subjectivity, and violence of institutional authorities against minorities and outcasts. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and Colonialism (Haiti and Chile), both texts explore cultures of colonial violence and racism that feel strikingly modern and contemporary.

Stephan Ehrig is Lecturer in German at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to East German cultural production pre- and post-1990, as well as on 19th to 21th Century literature, theatre and film. His latest book, Neubau Atmospheres. East German Cultural Remediations of Modernist Architecture, was published in October 2025.