The 44th Paderborn Writers' Guest Lectureship, this time held by the writer, musician and academic Prof. Dr. Michael Lentz, was concluded on 27 January 2026 with an interdisciplinary academic symposium for the Poetry Lecturer. Prof Dr Christoph Jacke (Deputy Managing Director of C:POP - Transdisciplinary Research Center for Popular Music Cultures and Creative Economies) and Joshua Wick (board member of C:POP) contributed a lecture entitled: "Rätsel Punctum in der Musikproduktion am Beispiel Herbert Grönemeyer: Berührungen durch popmusikkulturelle Images".
Various works and pages by author Lentz were reviewed, analysed and discussed in the studio stage of Paderborn University, as well as his biography "Grönemeyer" (2024). Prof. Jacke and Wick took from this a thesis by the author regarding the punctum in Herbert Grönemeyer's voice, in which Lentz elaborates on the special nature of pop music cultures based on the pop and art theorist Diedrich Diederichsen, and placed it in the context of his own analyses and models of stars, images and pop music cultures. Based on the famous cultural and literary theorist Roland Barthes' original reflections on photography, the term "punctum" describes a particularly effective moment in the reception of produced music that makes a song fascinating and appealing to the listener and, above all, can be perceived as a trace of the authenticity of artists.
In his example, Lentz names the unmistakable qualities of Grönemeyer's voice as a punctum, some of which are also closely linked to his own body. This is where Prof Jacke and Wick come in and assess this punctum as a means of creating authenticity and closeness, which in turn contributes to Grönemeyer's image. The interplay between strangeness and closeness, star and private person, show and authenticity is one of the decisive characteristics of a star's image.
After a stimulating discussion following the lecture and with this successful example of interdisciplinary collaboration between literary studies and popular music studies, the 44th Writers' Guest Lectureship came to an end. Jacke and Wick intend to continue their dialogue with Prof. Lentz as part of a larger research project on the topic.
In addition, the organisers Prof. Dr. Norbert Eke and Prof. Dr. Stefan Elit from the Institute of German and Comparative Literature are planning a publication with the contributions from the symposium.
