Call for papers
The Fragile Tradition: The German Cultural Imagination since 1500
1-3 October 2002
University of Cambridge, UK
St John's College
Confirmed Plenary Speakers
Prof. Aleida Assmann (Yale University)
Prof. Ulrich Gaier (University of Konstanz)
The research group 'Cultural History and Literary Imagination' is based in
the German Department of the University of Cambridge, and is primarily
concerned with the relationship between literary texts and their cultural
and historical contexts, whether these are conceived in social, political or
intellectual terms. The planned conference 'The Fragile Tradition' is
intended to provide an opportunity to investigate the forms and functions of
the cultural imagination, and the way it is reflected in literary und
discursive texts, in the German language area since 1500. Contributions
which focus either on moments of radical change in German culture or on the
continuities which lie behind the apparent discontinuities would be welcome.
The organisers would particularly welcome contributions germane to the
issues which the research group has identified for its longer-term
programme. With the conference theme in mind, these issues might be defined
as follows:
1. Changes in the material culture of the German-speaking world and their
reflection in literature, including the impact of scientific and
technological developments and changes of cultural paradigm (e.g. literary
responses to scientific thinking and scientific views of the world, the
materiality of knowledge and its representation in literary and discursive
texts, the impact of industrialisation, social change, the influence of new
media and their anthropological dimension).
2. The construction of cultural meaning through literary texts, models of
historical explanation, forms of historiographical representation, and media
systems, particularly with reference to continuities and discontinuities of
cultural and political identity, or of 'national consciousness', and with
reference to the canonisation (or subversion) of lines of tradition.
3. The status and the forms of historical and cultural memory,
particularly the cultural constitution of tradition and memory, and the
spatial and visual expression of cultural memories (lieux de mémoire in the
sense promoted by Pierre Nora), the dynamic metaphors by which cultural
memory is transmitted, and its representation in literary and discursive
texts and visual media.
4. Questions of the methodology of a trans-disciplinary and historically
orientated investigation of cultural thinking and its representation in the
medium of text, image, film, etc. Of particular interest here is the
question of how to deal with diverse media when constructing and
interpreting cultural developments historically.
Contributions may be in either English or German. The organisers expect to
be able to publish a selection of the papers in a volume designed to provide
orientation among the fundamental issues of the historical interpretation of
cultural phenomena, and to serve as a showcase of the interaction of British
and German scholarship in this area.
Please send your proposal (title and short summary of content) by 1 May 2002
to one of the following:
Dr David Midgley,St John's College, Cambridge CB2 1TP, United Kingdom
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Dr Christian Emden, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge CB2 3HU, United Kingdom
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