CALL FOR PAPERS
Kennst du das Land?
Kulturaustausch in der deutschen Literatur
Edinburgh University, Friday 15th December 2006
Conference Organizers: Prof. Andrew Barker (Edinburgh), Dr Eleoma
Joshua (Edinburgh), Prof. Robert Vilain (Royal Holloway University of
London)
The German Department of the University of Edinburgh, in conjunction
with the German Department at Royal Holloway University of London, is
hosting a major international conference to examine the significance of
cultural exchange in determining the nature of German (cultural)
identity from the medieval period to the present.
The conviction that German culture and the German spirit is essentially
and triumphantly unique has played a notorious and dangerous role in
that country’s history for well over a century. It is nonetheless
widely acknowledged how German cultural production – in both process
and outcome – has been significantly shaped by its interaction with
non-German sources, and that the search for what is unique about
Germany and German literature must to a large extent incorporate its
non-German influence.
This conference aims to offer the forum for a wide-ranging, pluralist
investigation into how German literature from the middle ages to the
present day reflects and articulates some of these interactions. Its
will encourage the identification and tracing of patterns in this area,
within and across periods, as well as the more detailed analysis of
individual high-points or local clusters of significance from the
perspective of the topic of ‘cultural exchange’.
Areas for examination might include the following (although the list is
clearly not intended to be exhaustive):
• German medieval literature and its European inspiration
• German literature and the Thirty Years War
• Germany and the classical cultures of Greece and Rome – inspiration or
tyranny?
• German literature and the literature, music and art of England, France,
Ireland, Italy, Russia, Scandinavia, Scotland and Spain
• Germany, Switzerland and Austria – distinct cultural identities?
• Germany and Shakespeare
• Germany and the Ostjuden
• Germany and the Americanisation of Europe
• Orientalism in German literature, the reception of Chinese and Japanese
literature and culture
• Germany and Turkey – the impact of the economic migrant
• Germany’s colonial legacy, postcolonialism in German literature
• post-war German-Jewish literature and its non-German influences
• the impact of the translation of German literature in Germany itself
Papers should be 30 minutes in length, and may be held in English or
German. If you would like to take part, please send an abstract to Dr.
Eleoma Joshua by 7 April 2006: Dr. Eleoma Joshua, School of
Literatures, Languages and Cultures, German Section, The University of
Edinburgh, David Hume Tower, Edinburgh, EH8 9JX. Email:
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It is anticipated that a volume of essays in English, edited by the
organizers, will result from the conference.
