Dear colleagues,
Please see below a call for papers for a conference in Nov 2009, being
origanized by me and Dr Christina Lee (a colleague in English) at
Nottingham.
Since some people have already asked, I should say that the cutoff at 1600
was rather arbitrary - we would of course welcome relevant proposals
relating to the 16th century too.
If anyone would like this information as an attachment (which I can't send
through German Studies), please let me know.
Best wishes,
Nicola McLelland
Institute for Medieval Research
Germania Remembered 1600-2009
International Symposium, University of Nottingham, November 20-21, 2009
First Call for Papers
2009 marks the 2000th anniversary of the Battle of the Teutoburger Wald
(Hermannsschlacht) when ‘Hermann’ (Arminius) and the Germanic tribe of the
Cherusci defeated the Roman forces. This event is widely remembered in post-
medieval sources, where it has served as a template for a proud tradition
of ‘free Germania’ for writers and scholars in Germany and beyond. Ever
since the rediscovery of sources like Tacitus’s Germania in the 15th
century, not just remembrance of the Teutoburger Wald, but also subsequent
rediscoveries and re-creations of the Germanic inheritance have been
incorporated into the self-images of Germany and of other countries. Such
remembrances and reinventions have taken many different forms, from
uncritical praise (as 17th-century cultural patriots’ praise for the
ancient Germanic language), to Romantic medievalism, to biting satire (such
as Heine’s Nordsee 1825) and Nazi mythologizing.
The tradition of Germania in German and other literatures and cultures will
be explored at a Symposium in 2009 at the University of Nottingham. How is
Germania – the peoples, customs and morals, language and literature, of
ancient northern Europe – remembered and reinvented from 1600-2009? How do
such remembrances and re-creations help construct national or trans-
national identities, in Europe and beyond? We particularly invite
comparative approaches, whether exploring continuities and discontinuities
over time, or examining similarities and differences between individual
writers, between discourse traditions, and/or in different countries.
Professor Roberta Frank will present a plenary lecture at the Symposium.
Professor Frank has published widely on medievalism, and is Marie Borroff
Professor of English at Yale University.
Conference strands:
1. Urtext, Ursprache? The Germanic inheritance in language history and
philology
2. Re-inventing traditions: The recreated Germanic past in literature and
culture
3. Germania Historia: The Germanic past in history and philosophy
4. Stage and Screen: The Germanic past in theatre and film
Submission of Abstracts: Abstracts of 350 words should be emailed
(preferably as Word attachments) to the organizers (email below) by May
15th, 2009, indicating under which panel you wish to be considered.
For all enquiries, please contact the organizers:
Dr Christina Lee (School of English Studies, University of Nottingham)
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Dr Nicola McLelland (School of Modern Languages, University of Nottingham)
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Sponsors: Institute for Medieval Research at the University of Nottingham
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/medieval/index.php
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