Edinburgh German Yearbook 7 (2014)
Call for Contributions:
The German Language, National Socialism and the Shoah:
New Literary, Linguistic, and Historical Perspectives
Editors:
Peter Davies (Edinburgh)
Andrea Hammel (Aberystwyth)
Despite the best efforts of those for whom the German language is a
thing of endless fascination and beautiful perversity, or for whom it
should be promoted as a vital tool in business communication, there is
seemingly no escaping the association of the language of Goethe with
the language of Hitler. In fact, these two leaden clichés seem to be
inseparable, suggesting a Sonderweg between enlightened sophistication
and linguistic barbarism. ?Sprachkritiker? such as Victor Klemperer
suggested that the Lingua Tertii Imperii was a perversion of German
that needed to be purged from the language, but does the notion of
?Nazi language? as an identifiably separate entity really hold water,
or is it simply analogous to the desire to construct a clear
demarcation line between ?Germans? and ?Nazis?? What new linguistic,
literary or historical perspectives are available on the functioning
of language during and after the Third Reich?
How have victims and their descendants, both German-speaking and
non-German-speaking, thought about and worked in and with German as a
language? What are the consequences when texts by victims are
translated into or out of German?
Must German always be the ?language of the perpetrators?, entailing a
constant state of heightened self-awareness or vigilance against
contamination, or is neutral, objective speech about National
Socialism possible in German? Do scholarly language or political
discourse have particular roles and responsibilities? Does literary
German offer possibilities for critical reflection or representation,
or does it suffer from unique difficulties? Is it possible to convey
in translation the dilemmas of writing in German about the Shoah?
What attitudes towards German does one find amongst the neighbors of
the German-speaking countries? Are there possible comparative
perspectives with language associated with other genocides,
dictatorships or colonial projects? What relevance do these questions
have in the increasingly multicultural and multilingual
German-speaking countries?
This collection intends to provide new perspectives on the
relationship?or the perceived relationship?between the German language
in all its manifestations and the causes, nature and legacy of
National Socialism and the Shoah. We welcome contributions from
scholars of literature or other arts, linguists, translation scholars
and historians. Essays may take the form of general surveys,
theoretical discussions, textual analyses, etc., but preference will
be given to pieces that show original perspectives or propose new
fields of research.
Deadline for proposals (300 words max.) is 28 February 2013. Proposals
should be sent to both editors:
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Contributors will be informed of the final selection by the end of
March, and the deadline for submission of papers of approx. 6000 words
will be 31 December 2013. All contributions will be peer reviewed.
Recent issues of Edinburgh German Yearbook:
EGYB 6 (2012) Sadness and Melancholy in German-Language Literature and Culture
Ed. by Mary Cosgrove and Anna Richards
EGYB 5 (2011) Brecht and the GDR: Politics, Culture, Posterity
Ed. by Laura Bradley and Karen Leeder
EGYB 4 (2010) Disability in German Literature, Film, and Theater
Ed. by Eleoma Joshua and Michael Schillmeier
EGYB 3 (2009) Contested Legacies: Constructions of Cultural Heritage
in the GDR
Ed. by Matthew Philpotts and Sabine Rolle
EGYB 2 (2008) Masculinities in German Culture
Ed. by Sarah Colvin and Peter Davies
EGYB 1 (2007) Cultural Exchange in German Literature
Ed. by Eleoma Joshua and Robert Vilain
Further information:
http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/listcategoriesandproducts.asp?idcategory=89
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