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LITERARY CONSTRUCTIONS OF HISTORICAL WORLDS 
IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY SINCE 1750

Conference organized by the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations
(CAGCR), Queen Mary, University of London 
and the German Historical Institute (GHI), London

London, 25-27 September 2008

Call for Papers

Since Herodotus and Thukydides, historiography has been influenced by
literary stylistics and by narrative. Likewise, historical subject matters
continue to inform large sections of literary writing. In recent years
aspects of narratology have also become objects of scrutiny by various
academic disciplines. Based on the advanced understanding of how literary or
quasi-literary narrative structures function in historical, biographical and
anthropological writing, this conference aims to explore the specificity of
literary constructions of historical worlds in Britain and Germany since the
Enlightenment, and to assess their contribution to Anglo-German cultural
relations.

Short papers (no longer than 30 minutes) are invited that address one
specific aspect of such literary constructions of history on a comparative
basis, e.g.: Anglo-German perceptions of 1848 or 1918; Frederick II of
Prussia and literary/historiographical responses to him in Britain;
Churchill as seen by Sebastian Haffner and Golo Mann; the
literary-historical representation of specific sites and locales.

Four keynote lectures will set the scene for and/or summarize various
thematic sections focussing on: 

1) specific years or historical events;
2) the biographies and historical representations of key historical figures;
3) cities, geographies and topographies. 

A brief abstract (200 words) should be submitted by 1st March 2008 to
Professors A. Gestrich (GHI) and R. Görner (CAGCR).

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Papers may be delivered in either English or German.

Venues will be the GHI (17 Bloomsbury Square) and QMUL (Mile End Campus).

The conference website can be found here:

http://www.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/research/anglogerman/events/ghi2008.html