Carl Schmitt’s Land and sea (Land und Meer) : philosophy, ideology, and narratives

Responsable - Roberto Casati

Public - M1/M2

Dates - 2022/2023

Written in 1941, Land and Sea is one of the most accessible and popular texts of Carl Schmitt, the leading conservative intellectual of the Weimar Republic and later of Nazi Germany, tried in Nurenberg. Drawing from a heterogeneous set of sources (literature, juridical text, world history, folklore), the book canvasses a tension between land powers (Germany and Russia) and sea powers (England). (Interestingly, the dichotomy is revived in the ideology of contemporary imperialistic Russian intellectuals and has been invoked to justify the invasion of Ukraine). The internship will contextualize the text (e.g. in the framework of the Molotov-Von Ribbentropp pact, or relatively to declared sources such as Michelet and Melville), and possibly follow the ramifications of Land and Sea into contemporary debates about imperialism. Reading knowledge of German and Russian, although not requested, would be an interesting bonus.

(MasterPhilo)

Working language will be French or English