Monday, January 28, 2013

Hannah Arendt Anecdote

Reading Alois Prinz' pretty good biography about Hannah Arendt, I came across a funny anecdote (p.170) which I will freely translate into english: In the 50s Arendt was invited to give the first lecture as a woman at Princeton. In an interview, she is annoyed at a question that implies she was invited because she is a woman. "I don't mind being called Ms Professor (German: Professorin), because I have gotten used to being a woman." She has no problem with her femininity, so Prinz, and does not understand why she should be less feminine just because she is doing something that was traditionally done by men. Hut ab, as they say here in Germany.

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