Call for Papers
Eleventh Annual Interdisciplinary German Studies Conference
at the University of California at Berkeley
March 15-16

SPEAKING BETWEEN: LANGUAGE AND INTERSUBJECTIVITY

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2003

“Language is not simply means for understanding, but the impression of
the mind and world-view of the speaker. [. . .] That is why the learning
of a foreign language is the achievement of a new standpoint in the
present world.”  Wilhelm von Humboldt

When our personal narratives no longer intersect, due to the
fragmentary, heteroglossic nature of identity construction in the
postmodern era, how do we create community or a sense of it?  What roles
do language, ideology and power play in community formation?  And how
does the meaning-making subject interact with and through the semiotic
systems of its communities?  The graduate students of the German
Department at the University of California at Berkeley welcome scholars
from across the disciplines to engage in this theoretical discussion.

We are open to submissions in any time period from the medieval to the
present.  Possible areas of investigation include but are not limited
to:

-Literary Cults / Salons
-Secret Societies
-Missionary Groups: Religious and Otherwise
-Theories of Gemeinschaft
-Comedy & Community
-Pedagogical Implications
-Linguistic Nationalism/Linguistic Hegemony
-Narrativizing Community
-Communal Images
-Lost in Translation?
-German Reunification
-German Idealism and Philosophies of Language
-Conceptual Blending & the Arts
-A Global Cinema?
-Stunde Null / Kahlschlagliteratur
-Mystical communities
-Romantic subjects

The language of the conference is English, but submissions in German are
also welcome.  In some cases we may be able to provide a travel
subsidy.  Please mail or email a one page abstract with a separate cover
sheet indicating your name, affiliation, address, phone number and email
address to:

Tes Skogmo
Department of German
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720
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