CALL FOR PAPERS
Cardiff School of European Studies is organising a conference on

Cultural Memory of German Left-Wing Terrorism

Conference Organiser: Gerrit-Jan Berendse
Cardiff University, 16-17 September 2005


The focus of the conference is a critical investigation of a web of culturally
remembering the terrorist period in Germany (1968-98) by artists and scholars
alike. A major impulse for this new interest in the past and the display of
various public memory contests during the post-unification period in Europe
seems to be the need for redefining German identity. One of the targets of the
explosion of memory in post-unified Germany was the revision of the narratives
which dominate the history of the 1968 generation and the RAF generation. The
search for new narratives means scrutinizing the places in which memories are
both stored and communicated. In recent publications, topics related to
politically motivated violence surfaced that need to be critically examined.
These are 1) artistic representations of terrorism and their (in-)ability to
deal with traumatic events; 2) the RAF and its tense relationship with the
protest movement of the late-1960s; and 3) the links between
left-wing terrorism
and the 'benchmark' of politically motivated violence in Germany, Nazi
terror and the Holocaust These three major topics will constitute the tenor of
the conference.
The conference welcomes papers that investigate these issues, and encourages
interdisciplinary and comparative scholarship that places German, Germanic and
European Studies in a larger context. Theoretical papers on cultural memory are
very much appreciated.
Confirmed Speakers include: Gerd Koenen (Frankfort/Main), Andres Veiel
(Munich), Sabine von Dirke (Pittsburgh), Jeremy Varon (Madison), Moray McGowan
(Dublin), Julian Preece (Kent), Ingo Cornils (Leeds), Ewout van der Knaap
(Utrecht), Annette Vowinckel (Berlin).

Gerd Koenen and Andres Veiel have agreed to present their co-production on
converting Koenen's book Vesper, Ensslin, Baader. Urszenen des deutschen
Terrorismus (2003) to a movie.
Proposals together with an abstract of no more than 500 words should be sent by
1 December 2004 to:
Professor Gerrit-Jan Berendse
Cardiff School of European Studies
Cardiff University
P.O. Box 908
Cardiff CF10 3YQ
Wales, United Kingdom
Email: [log in to unmask]

*******************
The German Studies Call for Papers List
Editor: Stefani Engelstein
Assistant Editor:  Meghan McKinstry
Sponsored by the University of Missouri
Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html