Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland

The seventy-third conference of the Association will take place 29-31 March 2010 at:-

The University of Reading

CALL FOR PAPERS


The next conference of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland will take place at the University of Reading, 29-31 March 2010. Accommodation will be provided in Whiteknights Hall.

If you are interested in contributing a paper to any of the panels, please send your proposal directly to the e-mail address of the conveners listed below. If you would like to propose a panel or if you would like to offer a paper that does not fall within the remit of any of the listed panels, please contact the Conference Secretary Dr Peter J. Davies (Peter.J.Davies@ed.ac.uk). Proposals for papers should be 150-200 words, panel outlines 50-100 words.

Proposals for papers should reach the relevant conveners by 30 November 2009. Any proposals for additional panels should reach Peter Davies by 31 October 2009.

Lead Panel
Everyday Culture and the Depiction of the Everyday in Literature, Arts and Media
Convenor: Ute Wölfel (Reading) U.Wolfel@Reading.ac.uk
This lead panel invites contributions dealing with the everyday and its procedures of cultural production and consumption. The focus could be on the everyday as practices or 'ways of operating' on the one hand or on the everyday as an object of representation across different media on the other. Papers could deal with everyday practices in history; subcultures; spheres of the everyday such as work and leisure; but also changing forms of representing the everyday in art, literature and mass media; policy addressing or influencing the everyday; discourses about the everyday; the study of 'everyday language'.

Postcolonial Studies in German Studies
Convener: Dirk Goettsche (Nottingham) dirk.goettsche@nottingham.ac.uk
This panel will be organized in collaboration with the 'DFG-Netzwerk Postkoloniale Studien in der Germanistik'. The German research network 'Postkoloniale Studien in der Germanistik', funded by the German Research Council DFG and based at Mainz (see http://www.netzwerk.postkoloniale-studien.av.literaturwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/index.php), provides a first platform for the promotion of postcolonial research and debate, as does the newly established Postcolonial Studies Association for the wider field of British and Irish humanities and social sciences. The AGS panel 'Postcolonial Studies in German Studies' aims to provide a forum for British and Irish research in the field while also promoting dialogue with postcolonial research in German-language Germanistik and the German tradition of Cross-Cultural Literary Studies.

Literary and Cultural Theory: What is the Wissenschaft in Literaturwissenschaft?
Convener: Angus Nicholls (Queen Mary) a.j.nicholls@qmul.ac.uk
In the last decade or so, there have been many voices in Anglophone academia (e.g., Mark Turner, Joseph Carroll) arguing for a new 'scientific' literary criticism with a purportedly secure empirical basis in the biological and cognitive human sciences. The main purpose of such a criticism, they argue, is to overcome the relativism of 'postmodern literary studies' by making claims about literary texts scientifically 'testable'. The German critic who has most closely approached such positions is Karl Eibl in books such as Die Enstehung der Poesie and Animal poeta. Yet in Germany, academic literary criticism has always had the term Wissenschaft attached to it. This panel seeks answers to the question as to what is wissenschaftlich about German Literaturwissenschaft. How have German theorists (both historically and in recent times) defined and defended the Wissenschaftlichkeit of their discipline?

History and Remembrance
Convener: Anna Saunders (Bangor) mls202@bangor.ac.uk
This panel will focus on the mobilisation of history and practices of remembrance for the purposes of identity construction. Papers could address issues such as Erinnerungspolitik and processes of memorialisation and musealisation, the reappraisal of historical narratives for political and ideological purposes, questions of ownership and history, or the preservation of collective memory through national traditions, rituals and anniversaries.

Linguistics
Convener: Nils Langer (Bristol) Nils.Langer@bristol.ac.uk
This panel invites papers on any aspect of German and Germanic linguistics. In particular we welcome papers on systemic and sociolinguistics as well as the interface between linguistic analysis and practical language teaching. Papers which contain a comparative element are keenly encouraged.

Gender and German Studies
Convener: Renate Rechtien (Bath) R.A.Rechtien@bath.ac.uk
This panel focuses on literary and filmic representations of gender; theoretical and fictional constructions of masculinity / femininity (and anything in between / beyond); and ways of approaching texts/films which take account of gender (of author / characters / reader/viewer). Proposals are welcome for papers dealing with any period from the Medieval to the 21st century.

Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Convener: Sabine Rolle (Edinburgh) s.rolle@ed.ac.uk
Proposals are welcome for papers on any aspect of medieval German studies, the early modern period, or their reception in later periods. Contributions by postgraduate students will be particularly welcome.

Eighteenth-Century Studies
Convenor: Dan Wilson (Royal Holloway) D.Wilson@rhul.ac.uk
Papers are invited on any aspect of the culture of German-speaking countries in the nineteenth century, including literature, theatre, visual culture and thought.

Nineteenth-Century Studies
Contact: Peter Davies (Edinburgh) Peter.J.Davies@ed.ac.uk
Papers are invited on any aspect of the culture of German-speaking countries in the nineteenth century, including literature, theatre, visual culture and thought. The CUTG is also looking for a colleague willing to convene this panel.

Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Studies
Convener: Debbie Pinfold (Bristol) Debbie.Pinfold@bristol.ac.uk
Papers are invited on any aspect of twentieth-century and contemporary German cultural studies. Appropriate subjects for this panel include literary, film and media studies (including work on the intersection between media), cultural history, and area studies. We would particularly welcome papers demonstrating innovative theoretical, methodological, and interdisciplinary approaches.