x-post: H-GERMAN

Call For Papers

The University of Virginia Departments of German and History announce a Graduate Student Conference to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia on

March 27-29, 1998:

CROSSING BORDERS

Heimat, Displacement and Exile

What is Heimat? How is it represented in various discourses in German-speaking cultures? According to Angelika Bammer, displacement is one of the formative experiences of our century. Throughout at least the last two centuries, however, attempts have been made to define the concept of Heimat and what it entails, especially in moments when the physical/ geographical home is lost. This panel addresses the problems of Heimat in history and literature and how the discourse of Heimat is shaped by experiences of displacement and exile.

GDR: Kein Ort. Nirgends?

The GDR has frequently been represented in West German and American discourse as being over there. How was GDR society perceived, and how did it perceive itself, as crossing boundaries? And, now that its borders have been dissolved, how do our modes of representation and discussion of the GDR change as well? What new boundaries have been created in the wake of that dissolution? This panel seeks papers that address GDR society, culture, history, and literature from many perspectives.

Writing Insanity: Constructing and Deconstructing the Human Mind >From the Romantics to Georg Heyms Der Irre, from the staging of Marat Sade to Guenter Grass Die Blechtrommel, insanity has played a central role in German-language literature. How do writers and historians approach the idea of the disordered mind? How has the insanity of Hlderlin and Lenz shaped the German imagination? Are writing and staging ordering and therapeutic, or can they be viewed as perpetuating the madness? If they are therapeutic, for whom and in what ways do they mitigate the personal and cultural traumas of oppression and memory?

Genre-Bending

The matter of literary genres is one of the essentially contested concepts that has played a leading role in the history of poetics since the time of Aristotle. (Claudio Guilln). Essentially contested because to assert an answer to the question What kind of literature is this? assumes an answer to the question What is literature? As theorists have attempted to define and divide genres, authors have subverted these attempts by twisting and combining traditional genres, inventing new ones, and resurrecting genres thought long dead. This panel will explore problems of genre formation, violation, history, adaptation, the effect of concepts of genre on canon formation, and the current debate over genre.

Focal Points of Identity: Within and Beyond Germany

Through centuries of anticipating, and on occasion attaining, political unity, German-speaking people cultivated sub-national categories of identification focused on regional origin, religious affiliation, class membership, and a myriad of other factors. Even during the short periods during its history when Germany has experienced political unity, German culture transcended geopolitical boundaries, at the same time that non-national or sub-national identities remained strong. This panel will examine those various focal points of identity throughout German history, as well as ways in which those boundaries are transcended.

The Outsider, Inside

Jews, Gypsies, guest workers, asylum seekers, and foreign occupiers, among others, have all figured at times as outsiders inside the German nation. The outsider inside pointedly questions the manner in which the borders of citizenship, culture, gender and race are to be policed. This panel will examine the experience and discourse of these outsiders and the ways in which German insiders have perceived them.

Open Topic Papers on any topic of interest to the presenter.

Presentations should be no longer than 15-20 minutes. Travel grants will be awarded to participants and housing will be provided on a first-come first-served basis. Please submit a one-page abstract to:

Erin McGlothlin, University of Virginia German Dept., 108 Cocke Hall,
Charlottesville, VA 22903
E-mail: ehm4q@virginia.edu
Fax: (804) 924-6700

Submission Deadline: January 20, 1998.

TRAVEL GRANTS AVAILABLE


Quelle = Email <H-Soz-u-Kult>

From: Timothy Schroer <tls8b@virginia.edu>
Subject: CFP: Crossing Borders (UVA Grad Conference)
Date: 4.11.1997


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