Events
Women Writers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Conference Series
Thursday, 25 and Friday, 26 November 2010
Venue: Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London
Co-Ordinators: Hilary Brown (Swansea University) and Caroline Bland (Sheffield University)
Keynote speakers: Norbert Bachleitner (Vienna), Magdalene Heuser (Osnabrück/Berlin), Susanne Kord (London)
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals are invited for a two-day conference to be held at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies[IGRS] , University of London, on 25 and 26 November 2010. This is one in a series of day schools and conferences on women writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which have taken place regularly since the late 1980s at various universities in the UK and US. The event is organized jointly by the German Section at Swansea University, the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Sheffield and the IGRS.
The onset of the Enlightenment brought with it a new interest in things foreign: the literati learnt languages, avidly read and translated foreign literature, travelled extensively, and began corresponding and building up networks with colleagues abroad. The events of 1789 and Napoleon's subsequent progress through Europe produced literary responses from a range of German writers. Although France remained in the avant-garde through much of the nineteenth century in terms of politics and cultural tastes, writers in the German states were also well-placed to react to influences from the South, East and North. The lack of a clearly-defined cultural and political centre for the German states until 1871 may have encouraged some writers to respond to influences from foreign capitals, especially Paris and London. In other cases, it could be argued that this circumstance delayed the dissemination of certain ideas and fashions.
How European was German women's writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? What opportunities did women writers have to participate in cross-cultural interchange? How did they react to developments outside their own borders in their writing? The conference aims to open up new perspectives on German women's writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by exploring how it engages with the cosmopolitanism which was so characteristic of much of this era. 20-minute papers are invited on the following themes (and related areas):
• German women as readers/reviewers/translators of European literature
• Literary engagements with the foreign
• Correspondence and contact between German women and their European colleagues
• The view from exile
• Travel writing
• Reception of German women’s writing abroad
Please send abstracts (200-300 words) with a working title to both of the co-ordinators by 30 September 2009:
May 2009