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From: The Visual Turn <[log in to unmask]>

Call for Papers

THE VISUAL TURN
12th Annual Germanic Studies
Graduate Student Conference at Yale

New Haven, Connecticut
April 6-8, 2001

Special Guest:
Rainer Simon
East German Filmmaker
(_Till Eulenspiegel_ (1975), _Jadup and Boel_ (1980/88), _The Air
Ship_ (1983), _The Women and the Stranger_ (1985; Golden Bear),
_Wengler and Sons_ (1987), _Climbing the Chimborazo_ (1989),
_The Case Oe._ (1990), _Distant Land Pa-Isch_ (1993/2000),
_Talking with Fish and Birds_ (1998/99))

We invite submissions on the following topics:

Cinematic Memory: The Return of History as Film?
Cinema has a particular status in the creation (and suppression) of
public memory. Whether documentary or fiction, filmic images
shape common understandings of history and sometimes become
indistinguishable from lived experience. In Germany, this has been
particularly critical. UFA was instrumental in Nazi propaganda
efforts, while in the Adenauer era, /Papas Kino/ aided in the process
of forgetting. Many DEFA films rewrote recent German history in
terms of an anti-fascist struggle. Problematic historical memories
resurfaced in the West in the 1970's in a wave of "Nazi retro" films
and television programs. Current cinema is a prime location for
remembering the GDR. We seek papers on the representation of
historical events through film, and papers describing how films
reflect historical moments and preserve memory.

Imag(in)ing National Identity
Even before the birth of the modern nation state, images were used
to delineate what was supposedly German. Today, visual depictions
of national culture continue to form an integral part of how Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland imagine their own communities. How has
the use of the image developed alongside the growth and
transformation of national identity? How have artists, writers, and
public personas helped shape notions of what is German? How
does art help construct national culture, and what makes works of
art "German" or "Austrian": the artist's nationality, the subject
matter, the circumstances of its creation? Papers dealing with all
aspects of national identity and the visual are welcome.

/Denn Man Sieht Nur Die im Licht/: Power and Representation
From medieval ceremonies of public acclaim, visual Reformation
propaganda and the strategems of absolutist rulers to the twentieth
century advertising industries and propaganda machineries, the
politics of seeing and being seen play a central role in cultural and
political history. Public displays increase the visibility of governing
agencies, suggest a look at the governed and reiterate authority, but
can also powerfully subvert established authority. We invite
investigations on the representational strategies used to confer or
contest and finally implement power, as well as how they influence
or structure the public sphere.

Art from the Ashes? Visual Representations of the Holocaust
From Claude Lanzmann's _Shoah_ to Roberto Benini's _Life is
Beautiful_, from the establishment of memorials in Germany and
Austria to the construction of Holocaust museums, visual
representations of the Holocaust continue to stimulate discussion
and controversy about history, memory and the role of art in the
depiction of catastrophe. Not only German-language documentaries
and dramatizations, but also painting, sculpture and architecture
have raised questions about the merits of the visual in representing
an event which, it is argued, can never be depicted. We welcome
papers raising issues about how artists have either come to terms
with, avoided, or transcended the events of the Holocaust.

Text vs. Image: The Relationship between Literature and the Visual
Arts
Since the age of manuscript illumination, the history of text and
image has been one of cross-fertilization, intervention and
sometimes opposition. The visual arts modeled their creations on
literary motifs, while texts resorted to imagistic modes of
representation. Translating text into image and image into text,
various artistic movements have used one as a means to enhance
or critique the other. We welcome papers that deal with the
following questions: How have the visual arts influenced literary
forms? How have works of literature been adapted for representation
in painting or on film? Has the shift from mechanical reproduction to
digital representation had an effect upon reading or writing?

/Forme Menschen nach Meinem Bilde/: The Image-Making
Industries
Presenting audiences with an ideal Other, delineating forms of
desirability and cultivating need, the culture industry has decisive
influence on the identity formation of individuals and social groups.
We are looking for contributions addressing issues related to the
image-making industry, such as: its effect on politics; the market of
supply and demand; public icons and their function; the impact of
the advertising industry on contemporary culture; the role of
television; the operation of film distributors; the role of new media
such as the internet; how different media contribute to or counteract
social and political marginalization; forms of resistance against the
major commercial and governmental image-making industries (if
any), and their effectiveness.

Open Topic
We welcome abstracts on further topics within the area of German
Studies.

Submissions by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are
welcome. Blind submission is requested; please send abstracts
with title only, and include name and address on a separate sheet.

Please send abstracts to:
The Visual Turn
Yale University Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
P.O. Box 208210
New Haven, CT 06520-8210
USA
or:
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SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 30, 2001

Accommodation for presenters will be provided.
For more information, please contact conference organizers Laura
Heins, Evelyn Preuss and Lisa Silverman.
email: [log in to unmask]
ph: 203/432-0781
fax: 203/432-8164
http://www.yale.edu/german/gradconf.htm