Numerous scholars have identified an ‘ethical turn’ in the literature, culture, and theory of recent years. Questions of morality are urgent at a time of increasing global insecurities. And yet, it is becoming ever more difficult to make ethical judgements in multicultural and/or relativist societies. At the same time, Western hegemony is declining; ‘Western values’ are being challenged. Such challenges heighten the widespread fear of ‘the Other’ as represented by Islamic fundamentalism and by the abusive forms of power practised in some Middle Eastern countries. The European economic meltdown raises further ethical difficulties; in these straitened economic circumstances, the gap between rich and poor – as well as that between the generations – is growing. New approaches are needed.
Ethical concerns have found their way into recent German-language literature and culture. A number of literary works that deal with political/societal issues (Trojanow, Zeh); environmental questions (Draesner, Schätzing); religion, especially Islam (Şenocak, Kermani); and gender (Duve, Strubel) also engage with the ethical concerns that are inevitably bound up with these topics. A media culture that influences, or manipulates, people’s behaviour and beliefs also raises ethical concerns. Furthermore, the way we form relationships, under what circumstances, and with what kind of moral consequences, are questions that are vital to the shaping of our future ethical landscapes. Literature reflects, shapes, and even constructs such relationships, exploring and enacting potentially ethical engagements with the other.
Such ethical concerns have a long tradition in German-language literature and culture. This volume will, however, focus on notions of ethics in contemporary German-language literature and culture. Not only will the volume engage with ethical questions that literary texts, essays, drama, and visual culture (film, photography, fine art) address, it will also explore the ethics of reading and criticism.
Contributions of approximately 7,000 words are welcome on – but are not restricted to – the following themes:
1) Ethical questions in the text
Ethics and religion
Ethical views on the environment and ecology
Ethics and economy
Un/ethical representations of ‘the Other’
Ethics and gender
Ethics and race; ethics and ethnicity
Un/ethical treatments of life and death, health
Ethics and politics
Un/ethical forms of power
Ethical implications of responsibility, duty, and autonomy
Ethical approaches to empathy and emotions as well as rationality
Ethics and the tensions between hedonism/pleasure and moral/civic values
Ethical forms of individuality and/or collectivity
2) Ethical criticism
The role of the author; the writer’s responsibility
Authors’ motives and intentions
Author-reader relationships
The power of literature
Un/ethical forms of culture
Ways of resistance and ‘counter-discourse’
Ethics and aesthetics
Ethical problems of certain genres
3) Ethical reading
Ethical teaching of literature and culture
Ethics of reading and ethics while reading
Ethical distribution and promotion of literature
Ethics and the influence of literature and culture on the reader
The deadline for receipt of abstracts (250-300 words) is Friday, 3rd February 2012. Abstracts should be sent by email to Frauke Matthes (frauke.matthes@ed.ac.uk) and Emily Jeremiah (emily.jeremiah@rhul.ac.uk).
The deadline for contributions is Monday, 31st December 2012.
The Edinburgh German Yearbook (published by Camden House) is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary publication. Previous Yearbooks have focussed on: Cultural Exchange in German Literature (2007, eds. Eleoma Joshua, Robert Vilain); Masculinities in German Culture (2008, eds. Sarah Colvin, Peter Davies); Heritage – Der Umgang mit dem deutschen Erbe (2009, eds. Sabine Rolle, Matthew Philpotts); Disability in German Literature, Film and Theatre (2010, eds. Eleoma Joshua, Michael Schillmeier); Brecht and the GDR: Politics, Culture, Posterity (2011, eds. Laura Bradley, Karen Leeder); Sadness in Modern German-Language Literature and Culture (forthcoming 2012, eds. Mary Cosgrove, Anna Richards).