*With apologies for cross-posting*

CFP: REMINDER

Changing the Nation: Günter Grass in International Perspective

An International Conference at the University of Liverpool, UK

5-7 September 2007

Confirmed speakers: Avi Primor (Israeli Ambassador to the FRG, 1993-99) Patrick O’Neill (Queen’s, Canada), Krishna Winston (Wesleyan, US) Michael Minden (Cambridge, UK), Julian Preece (Kent, UK), Karen Leeder (Oxford, UK), Volker Neuhaus (Cologne, Germany)

Ever since the publication of Die Blechtrommel in 1959, Grass has exerted a powerful influence over contemporary debates shaping the post-war German nation. While his first novel was initially valued in Germany for its contribution to literary developments, its significance abroad was distinctly political: it was widely hailed as the German book that broke the collective silence of Grass’s compatriots on their National Socialist past. Over the course of his career, Grass has repeatedly built on this two-pronged success, becoming recognised both at home and abroad as Germany’s leading international writer and intellectual. His prominent position has always involved controversy - as most recently demonstrated by the outcry occasioned by his 2006 autobiographical revelations. Yet at the same time the doors that his fame has opened across the world have allowed him to break out of the narrowly nationalistic framework of his youth and bring to his German subject matter ideas and techniques that transcend simple national boundaries.

This conference focuses for the first time on what exactly it has meant for Grass to be an international author and intellectual, how his work has engaged with and impacted on debates outside Germany, and what influence these debates have had on his standing and his work back home. Showcasing German Studies particularly in the UK and US, we explore how changing the national context in which Grass is discussed can provide a valuable angle on his repeated efforts to change the German nation as both a political and a cultural entity. Potential speakers are invited to examine Grass and his oeuvre from three main perspectives:

1. Provenance

How has Grass come to reach national and international standing? Where might we place his roots, both cultural/literary and biographical/political? What about the impact of his own migration from Danzig/Gdańsk, his claim in the 1990 speech ‘Schreiben nach Auschwitz’ that the Holocaust has always functioned as the pivotal reference point for his work, and his 1992 reference to ‘Verlust als Voraussetzung für Literatur’?

2. Transmission

How has Grass acted as a political and cultural mediator, bringing German literature and German debate to the world – and vice-versa? How has Grass acted as a partner in dialogue for intellectuals abroad (Kenzaburô Ôe, Pavel Kohout, Françoise Giroud, Yoram Kaniuk, Helen Wolff)? Can we discern a particularly international style, themes (e.g. travel, cultural exchange) or outlook that reflect Grass’s international standing? What about Grass’s writing in translation?

3. Reception

What has Grass’s impact been on international literature (Kurt Vonnegut, Lobo Antunes, Nadine Gordimer, Gabriel García Márquez, Salman Rushdie, John Irving all acknowledge debts) and on international politics? What impact has international recognition had on Grass’s own work and its reception in Germany?

Proposals (300 words) for 25-minute papers exploring any of the themes outlined above or related aspects should be e-mailed to the conference co-ordinators by 31 December 2006:

Dr Frank Brunssen ([log in to unmask]), Dr Rebecca Braun ([log in to unmask]).

For abstracts from confirmed speakers and further conference details, please see www.liv.ac.uk/sml/conferences/Grass/index.htm