>
>UPDATE: Apologies for reposting, but this update corrects a discrepancy,=20
>from my original post, between the deadline date noted in the subject=20
>heading and the one specified in the body of the call.  Sorry for any=20
>confusion...
>
>"Ways of Reckoning: Historical Tragedy in Twentieth-Century Literature and=
>=20
>Film"
>
>A proposed panel for the American Comparative Literature Association=92s=
>  2003=20
>conference, in San Marcos, CA, near San Diego, invites abstracts for=20
>20-minute presentations on narratives of historical tragedy in the 20th=20
>century.  In German literary and cultural studies, the term=20
>Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung designates efforts to understand or reckon with=
>=20
>a troubled national past or a specific trouble within the past (in this=20
>terminological context, of course, almost always the Holocaust).  While the=
>=20
>Nazi genocide, like all historical tragedies, has its own host of cultural=
>=20
>and national specificities, this panel will consider the possibility that=20
>certain aspects of attempts to come to terms with historical tragedy are=20
>generalizable, visible in multiple contexts.  How have writers, filmmakers,=
>=20
>and literary and cultural theorists engaged this question?  Is there a=20
>palpable effort to locate blame, or should such narratives merely ponder=20
>immeasurable loss?  Are there affinities between twentieth-century avatars=
>=20
>of such narratives and accounts of earlier traumas?  Will any effort at=20
>articulating a general theory of narratives of historical tragedy=20
>inevitably reduce, perhaps violently, the subjects of its study?
>
>Just a few examples: Coetzee or Gordimer; Grass, Mann, Spielberg, Klueger,=
>=20
>or innumerable others on the Nazi genocide; Irving, O=92Brien and Apocalypse=
>=20
>Now on Vietnam; Ibuse, Duras, Hersey on the atomic bomb; Allende on=20
>political horrors; theoreticians of ethics, like Levinas, and how and=20
>whether such theory is suited to historical questions; claims that=20
>Holocaust memory has been instrumentalized to various ends; Horkheimer,=20
>Adorno, and Marcuse on the possibilities for post-Nazi aesthetics; and the=
>=20
>problem of slavery in the works of Morrison, Umar bin Hassan and others are=
>=20
>all fair game.
>
>Comparative as well as interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome=
>=20
>but not required.  Please send abstracts of around 250 words by 20=20
>September to:
>
>Geoffrey Baker
>Dept. of Comparative Literature
>Rutgers University
>131 George Street
>New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1414
>USA
>
>or via e-mail (either as attachment or in body of mail) at=
>  [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>Wer Million=E4ren nichts nimmt, kann Millionen nichts geben.
>(Who takes nothing from the millionaires can give nothing to the millions.)
>
>