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2019 Conference of the German Studies Association

October 3-6, 2019 (Portland, Oregon, USA)

 

Gottfried Keller at 200

 

The year 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the most influential and widely read Swiss German author of at least the nineteenth century, and perhaps ever: Gottfried Keller.  After a difficult childhood in Zurich and an ultimately failed attempt to become a painter, Keller began publishing lyric poetry in 1846.  He also went on to achieve acclaim as a novelist (Der grüne Heinrich, Martin Salander) and especially as the author of some of the finest novellas in all German literature (Sieben Legenden, Zürcher Novellen, Das Sinngedicht, and most notably Die Leute von Seldwyla).  One of literary realism’s foremost exemplars, Keller’s work embodied the up-and-coming spirit of the city of Zurich, a center of political, economic, and cultural liberalism.  Himself a passionate political liberal and a religious skeptic, Keller often seemed to personify the spirit of Zurich—at least until a more pessimistic note of social criticism crept into his late work.  He had a remarkable ability to range across the broadest philosophical, social, and artistic questions while simultaneously telling stories of personal intimacy and romantic love, all with a certain ironic humor uniquely his own.  While Keller’s work is in some ways quintessentially Swiss and even “Zurichian,” his work also speaks to us directly today, as we ourselves, like the modernizing and liberalizing Swiss of Keller’s age, seek to navigate the challenges of a global economy, religious pluralism, and democratic fragility.

 

The Swiss Studies Network seeks to mark the bicentennial of Keller’s birth by organizing a panel or series of panels revisiting his work at the 2019 annual conference of the German Studies Association.  We welcome studies of his life and thought, his poetry and prose, and we are open to a broad range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives.  We will consider both focused studies of particular works as well as efforts to situate him within his historical context, to place him among his literary contemporaries in Switzerland or elsewhere, or to trace the connections among his literary production, his work as Zürcher Staatsschreiber, his religious and political views, or his painting and aesthetic opinions.  We also welcome contributions that draw on recent theoretical models or areas of interest in German Studies, such as gender studies and feminist approaches, media studies, emotion studies, transnationalism and globalization, rhetorical criticism, digital humanities, and ecocriticism.

 

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words, together with a short, one-paragraph bio indicating your interests and qualifications, to Peter Meilaender ([log in to unmask]) no later than February 4, 2019.