ASSOCIATION FOR GERMAN STUDIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
CALL FOR PAPERS
AGS Conference at WARWICK UNIVERSITY, 6-8 September 2017
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 7th April 2017
The next conference of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland will take place at the University of Warwick, 6-8 September 2017. The lead panel for the conference will be 'Sound and Sense: The Relationship between Language and Music in German Culture across the Epochs', with a number of regular as well as one-off panels.
If you are interested in contributing a paper to any of these panels, please send your proposal directly to the e-mail address of the conveners listed below. Proposals for papers should be 150-200 words and should reach the relevant conveners by 7 April 2017.
http://www.ags.ac.uk
Lead Panel
Sound and Sense: The Relationship between Language and Music in German Culture across the Epochs
Conveners: James Hodkinson (Warwick); [log in to unmask] / Uwe Schütte (Aston); [log in to unmask] – please email both conveners with your proposal
The relationship between spoken or 'sung' language and musical sound has long been a practical concern of composers and an object of theoretical fascination for scholars of various disciplines. In the Germanophone tradition this has made for a particularly rich field of reflection and production. Researchers have written both on the musical setting of language and also literary writing about music, encompassing much of the classical musical canon in the process. Much territory remains to be covered, however, and many questions remain open – particularly for scholars of contemporary and/or popular music. Whether in the classical and folk traditions of the German Lied or Opera, in Brecht's use of Sprechgesang for the stage, in the post-war phenomenon of German Schlager, or, more recently, in the late 1960s and 1970s Krautrock movement, German Punk or Neue Deutsche Welle, Hamburger Schule, the traditions of electronic or industrial music, through to EDM (electronic dance music) and its associated club culture, the question of how the German language and sound relate remains a fascinating one. It both reflects and casts new light on wider debates surrounding German and Austrian cultural, intellectual and political history, and intersects with fields as diverse as national identity construction, Verganenheitsbewältigung, memory studies, spatial-turn theory and artistic practice, sound studies and the 'sonic turn' in cultural studies, gender studies, the history of counter- and subcultures, queer theory and art, and the transnational reach of German music. Recent years have seen a growing interest in the contemporary German music, though much of the work published has been undertaken by Anglophone sociologists and musicologists without access to the linguistic component.
In the context of a growing research hub into German Popular music in the UK Midlands, and in conjunction with the presence of author, musician, DJ and musical luminary Thomas Meinecke at the AGS as the President's guest in Warwick, we are seeking papers for this AGS lead panel addressing, though not limited to, issues such as:
- the relationship between musical sound and language in theory and practice of German song writing across the centuries
- uses of literary texts/ literary allusions in German song from 17th century to the present
- the 'disappearance' and 'return' of the German language in post-War popular German music
- avant-garde uses of language in German music/ song
- technological developments and the birth of electronic music
- music, language and national/ communal identity
- the German language and music in cross cultural, transnational and multicultural contexts
- literary writing about music – music as theme, motif, allegory and structural principle in modern German literature from 17th century to the Popliteratur of the last decades
- the politics of music and language from the 17th –21st centuries
- music, language and visual culture
Linguistics, Language Teaching and Learning, and Translation Studies
Convener: Melani Schröter (Reading); [log in to unmask]
The linguistics standing panel at the AGS welcomes papers on any aspect of German and Germanic linguistics, including comparative studies, translation studies and research on teaching German as a foreign language. Papers may deal with diachronic linguistics or trends in current usage, second language acquisition, language policy, sociolinguistics and (critical) discourse analysis. A range of contributions is welcomed, those with a more theoretical and conceptual angle as well as those based on empirical research. A range of methodological approaches within empirical linguistic analysis is equally embraced.
Eighteenth-Century Studies
Convener: Steffan Davies (Bristol); [log in to unmask]
This panel invites papers on all aspects of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century culture: its literature, theatre, visual culture, history and thought. The panel warmly welcomes comparative perspectives and work connecting this period to others.
Nineteenth and early Twentieth-Century Studies
Convener: Malcolm Spencer (Nottingham Trent); [log in to unmask]
Papers are invited on any aspect of the culture of German-speaking countries in the nineteenth century and earlier decades of the twentieth century (up to about 1930), including literature, theatre, visual and musical culture and thought.
Recycling the Canon: Political Reworkings of 'Classic' Texts
Conveners: Stephan Ehrig (Bristol); [log in to unmask] / Ellen Pilsworth (UCL); [log in to unmask] – please email both conveners with your proposal
This panel invites talks from scholars working on texts from any period that are re-workings of older or more canonical texts, specifically for political purposes. Themes could include, but are not limited to:
- The 'invention' of a national literature around 1800, using older materials based on supposedly oral traditions
- Re-tellings of eighteenth century literary works under National Socialism, and in the post-war Germanies
- Feminist responses to the traditional, patriarchal canon
- Contemporary political re-workings of, or responses to, works of the German canon (incl. ideas of a so-called 'Leitkultur')
- Political responses to canonical German texts by non-German and/or migrant authors
Postcolonial Studies in German Studies, Comparative Literature and Beyond
Convenor: Dirk Göttsche (Nottingham); [log in to unmask]
2017 sees the publication of a comprehensive German-language companion to postcolonial literary studies across all major European literatures and languages (Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur. Eds. Dirk Göttsche/Axel Dunker/Gabriele Dürbeck. Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler 2017, at press). This AGS panel will mark the occasion by exploring the scope, constraints and future directions of postcolonial studies today in German Studies, Comparative Literature and related disciplines. Proposals are welcome for presentations on all aspects of this international and interdisciplinary field. Theoretical contributions are as welcome as case studies. The panel is likely to combine papers from Handbuch authors with others recruited through this call for papers.
Gender after Queer Theory
Convenors: Katherine Stone (Maynooth); [log in to unmask] / Tom Smith (Newcastle); [log in to unmask] – please email both conveners with your proposal
Twenty-seven years after the word 'queer' entered the academy, scholars are increasingly asking what lies 'beyond' or 'after' queer theory. This panel will explore how queer theory has changed the way we categorize the world, and where its critical potential has stalled. We invite papers that address the following questions: to what extent have queer studies overturned entrenched notions of heterosexuality and binary conceptions of gender? Does the trajectory of gender and queer studies reflect an ever increasing decentring of gender? Or do references to difference continue to reinforce established categories and norms? While queer theory has resonated most within work on gender and sexuality, it is also essential to ask how queer methodologies have re-oriented research in German Studies more broadly and altered the way we think about other social norms (e.g. kinship, race, class, age, nationality, religion).
Queer perspectives are more important than ever after recent geopolitical shifts, which have reaffirmed borders and boundaries of all kinds. How can we as scholars of gender and sexuality mobilize queer theory in order to confront the challenges of the post-2016 world?
Friendship
Convenors: Tobias Heinrich (Oxford); [log in to unmask] / Gesa Frömming (FU Berlin); [log in to unmask] – please email both conveners with your proposal
This panel contributes to the newly emerging field of Friendship Studies. European cultural history has seen manifold approaches to conceptualize friendship: from Plato and Montaigne to Luhmann and Derrida. The aim of this panel is to inquire into friendship as a literary motif, a mode of writing, or a social concept in German literature, film and thought. It particularly invites interdisciplinary contributions that are concerned with the poetics of friendship and writing in dialogue, but also on the specific literary, cultural and socio-political conditions that shape conceptions and representations of friendship. To reflect the diverse history of friendship, its transitions and continuities, contributions from any modern or medieval period are welcome.
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