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Dear list members, this conference seems to promise not to simply reproduce the topos that representations of German suffering had been 'taboo' before 'Im Krebsgang'. Best wishes, Christine ----- >Call for Papers >Interdisciplinary Conference, March 5 and 6, 2004 >Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A. > >German Suffering/Deutsches Leid: Re(-)presentations > >“The sufferings most often deemed worthy of representation are those >understood to be the product of wrath, divine or human.” Susan Sontag’s >dictum seems to describe quite accurately the perceptions that have >endorsed and perpetuated the topos of the ‘German suffering’ in the post- >war Federal Republic. > >Such groups as the German expellees, POWs and civilians in the Gulag, >victims of rape and Allied air raids have haunted—and at times explicitly >dominated—West German political, literary, visual, and historiographic >discourses in the wake of 1945. The regularity of their >re-presentation in the public sphere as well as their versatile >representations in various media prompt one to ask about the appeal of what >a scholar dubbed the ‘musty charm of the German victim status’ (Erik >Franzen), seemingly evident again in the recent controversy over >the ‘Center against Expulsions’ (‘Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen’). > >Conference organizers invite submissions illuminating (dis)continuities of >such multiple representations in various social and cultural settings or >processes, theorizing constructions of victimhood, or focusing on >representational forms, tropes, techniques, media, and constraints. Papers >employing new methods, analytical frameworks, and previously little >explored historical, literary, or visual sources will be especially >welcome. > >Please submit abstracts not exceeding 300 words in length electronically to >Yuliya Komska ([log in to unmask]) and Ole Frahm ([log in to unmask]) by >December 1, 2003. Acceptances will be announced by December 14, 2003. > >Sponsored by the Department of German Studies and the Institute for German >Cultural Studies, Cornell University