The Humility of Thought: An Interview with Friedrich A. Kittler

Conducted at Gutenberg University in Mainz on May 13, 2011, this interview documents Friedrich A. Kittler’s last public appearance before he passed away. Kittler speaks about his life’s work, addressing issues ranging from the history of the Greek alphabet to Soviet language politics; from Germany’s coming to terms with its Nazi past to contemporary memory studies; from world literature and globalization to the humanities education today; from his intellectual debt to Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault to his first exposure to the work of Theodor Adorno, and his relationship with Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man.