Dear Colleagues,
Please find below an invitation to participate in a new research
colloquium on ANGLO-GERMAN MYTHOLOGIES to be held in the Department of
German at Queen Mary College, University of London, with the first session
beginning on FRIDAY OCTOBER 28 2005, 4pm-6pm. The focus of the colloquium
is broad and interdisciplinary, and will be of interest to academic staff
and graduate students working in the fields of German Studies, English
Literature and Culture, Comparative Literature, Literary and Critical
Theory, Philosophy, History, Cultural and Film Studies. A website relating
to the colloquium can also be found here:
http://www.modern-languages.qmul.ac.uk/research/anglogerman/colloq.html
Further information can be found below. Please feel free to email me if
you have any questions about the colloquium.
Many thanks,
Angus.
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Dr. Angus Nicholls,
Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations,
Department of German,
Queen Mary College,
University of London.
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS.
Phone: +44 (0) 207 882 7482
Fax: +44 (0) 208 980 5400
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QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN.
RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM 2005/2006:
ANGLO-GERMAN MYTHOLOGIES: LITERATURE, CULTURE, THEORY.
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1. Description:
Beginning in the 2005/2006 academic year, a new research colloquium will be
established in the Department of German at Queen Mary, University of
London, as part of the new Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations.
This colloquium is open to interested staff and postgraduate students
working at universities throughout London and the United Kingdom, and will
be of interest to those working in the fields of German Studies, English
Literature and Culture, Comparative Literature, Literary and Critical
Theory, Philosophy, History, Cultural and Film Studies.
The aim of the colloquium is to address “mythologies” in English and German
literature, philosophy, culture, and history, with a special emphasis on
how mythologies have influenced and continue to influence Anglo-German
cultural production and cultural relations.
For the purposes of the colloquium, the term “mythology” is to be
understood broadly in the original, ancient Greek sense of mythos – a
tale, narrative or legend that is not always completely factual, is often
invested with a large degree of emotional and imaginative power, and that
may function prior to,independently of, or at odds with logos (logic or
dialectical argumentation).
Some topics addressed by the colloquium may be the following:
•The different theorisations of myth in English and German scholarship.
•Mythologies in English and German literature and culture post 1750,
including the respective receptions of classical mythology in each
cultural tradition.
•The role played by mythologies in political discourses in and between
England and Germany.
•War narratives and mythology.
•Mythologies and national identity in England and Germany.
•Cities, places, landscapes and mythologies.
Contributors (postgraduate students and academic staff) will be invited to
present informal academic papers and work in progress on any aspect of
mythologies in post 1750 English and/or German culture. The idea of the
colloquium is to stimulate discussion and debate between participants in an
informal environment. Speakers will be encouraged to provide relevant
reading material to the colloquium organisers for distribution among
participants prior to each session.
2. The Functioning of the Colloquium in 2005/2006:
Time and Location:
The colloquium will be held on a monthly basis during term time on FRIDAY
afternoons between 4pm and 6pm in the first floor seminar room in the
Lock-keeper’s Graduate Centre at the Mile End Campus of Queen Mary College,
University of London. A map showing the location of the Lock-keeper’s
GraduateCentre can be found here:
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/hss/artsweeks/map.html
The First Six Sessions – Theory and Literature / Culture:
The first six sessions of the colloquium will be devoted to exploring
theorisations of myth in English and German scholarship, with a view to
providing a very broad theoretical orientation for subsequent discussions.
Within these theoretical sessions, fictional works will be referred to in
order to illustrate theoretical points. For example: Frazer’s The Golden
Bough may be studied in conjunction with T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland;
Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialektik der Auflklärung (Dialectic of
Enlightenment) may be studied in conjunction with selections from Homer’s
Odyssey; Blumenberg’s Arbeit am Mythos (Work on Myth) may be studied in
relation to Goethe’s poem “Prometheus.”
Following the first six sessions, the colloquium will become a forum in
which contributors (either academic staff or postgraduate students) will
be invited to present informal academic papers on any aspect of
mythology/mythologies in post-1750 English and/or German culture.
The sessions will be conducted in English, but German language texts will
be studied in the original language with English translations provided to
those who would like to use them. There is no required reading prior to
the first session, but thereafter readings for each session will be
distributed in the session prior to that for which the reading is required
(i.e., readings for session 2 will be distributed in session 1).
The first session, in which Professor Rüdiger Görner will lead a
discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Die Geburt der Tragödie (The Birth of
Tragedy), will be held on: Friday the 28th of October 2005, between 4pm-
6pm.
Topics for the subsequent five sessions can be found in the colloquium
timetable listed below.
Any inquiries should be directed to the Colloquium Convenor:
Dr. Angus Nicholls.
Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations,
Department of German,
Queen Mary College,
University of London.
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7882 7482
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8980 5400
3. Colloquium Timetable, late 2005 / early 2006:
*All sessions will be held in the first floor seminar room, Lock-keepers
Graduate Centre, at the Mile End Campus.
Session 1:
Friday
28/10/2005
4pm-6pm
Friedrich Nietzsche, selections from Die Geburt der Tragödie (The Birth of
Tragedy, 1872).
Session leader: Professor Rüdiger Görner
Session 2:
Friday
25/11/2005
4pm-6pm
James George Frazer, selections from The Golden Bough, 1922.
Session leader: Dr. Angus Nicholls.
Session 3:
Friday
16/12/2005
4pm-6pm
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, “Odysseus, oder Mythos und
Aufklärung”(Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment). In: Dialektik der
Aufklärung (Dialectic of Enlightenment, 1944).
Session leader: Dr. Angus Nicholls
Session 4:
Friday
13/1/2006
4pm-6pm
Ernst Cassirer, “The Technique of the Modern Political Myths.” In: The
Myth of the State, 1946.
Session leader: Dr. Angus Nicholls
Session 5:
Friday
10/2/2006
4pm-6pm
Northrop Frye, “Myth, Fiction and Displacement.” In Fables of Identity:
Studies in Poetic Mythology, 1957.
Session leader: Dr. Angus Nicholls
Session 6:
Friday
10/3/2006
4pm-6pm
Hans Blumenberg, “Nach dem Absolutismus der Wirklichkeit” (After the
Absolutism of Reality). In: Arbeit am Mythos (Work on Myth, 1979).
Session leader: Dr. Angus Nicholls
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