Call for Participants
German Studies Association Seminar: German Travel: New Directions
September 29-October 2, 2016 in San Diego
The deadline for applications is has been extended to February 1, 2016.
For directions on enrolling in this seminar (you must be a current GSA
member), visit the GSA webpage and the following link that details the
submission process: https://www.thegsa.org/conference/guidelines_16.html
As per the GSA seminar selection committee: "Participation in a seminar
involves intellectual work akin to preparing a paper and will thus count
as such. All seminar participants will be listed by name in the program.
If you are accepted to be an active participant in a seminar, you are
not allowed to give a paper in panel sessions. However, you may moderate
or comment on a panel.
Some individuals may choose to be a silent auditor to a seminar. Slots
for auditors are limited; the enrollment process for interested auditors
will only take place after the entire GSA program is set. When enrolling
seminar applicants will be asked to submit a mini vita (no more than
1000 characters) and a statement of purpose (no more than 1000
characters) indicating why they intend to participate in this seminar,
how their past or current research connects to the topic and what their
focus will be in this seminar."
German Travel Writing: New Directions
Seminar Description
Travel narratives have ranged from mythical tales going back as far as
Homer’s Odyssey and adventure stories such as Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe to
travel memoirs, expedition reports such as those by Alexander von
Humboldt, guidebooks (Baedeker), and travel blogs. These texts have
served an equally wide array of purposes, from providing entertainment
and feeding (off) Abenteuerlust and Fernweh to shaping the popular
conception of far-away regions and civilizations. As such, travel texts
have always been intricately linked to author biography and the national
imagination. Therefore, travel narratives tend to express as much about
the conditions in the writer’s own home country as they tell about the
destination of a particular journey. As travel texts became a staple on
the literary market, travel experiences in themselves can be seen to
increasingly build on pre-formed notions of what there is to see and in
turn shape and influence what others are to see. Travel writing, as well
as other media forms such as the blog, travel reports in newspapers, the
public presentation of travel images, geographic almanacs, and reports
to geographic and scientific societies allow for readers’ engagement
with the travel experience without actually having to travel at all
(armchair travel). Travel narratives thus provide a rich tapestry of
exchanges in terms of modalities of travel and sightseeing. Questions
that can be addressed through travel literature (in its broadest sense)
include the construction of the modern self, issues of gender and race
and how these impact access to travel, and the modern construction of
nation and national border through travel. Focusing on the particular
travel destinations, especially culturally charged places such as Rome
or Paris can yield insights into how destinations are constructed on the
literary page. This can also lead to questions of canon formation,
which, in turn leads to the issue of genre. Another set of questions
relates to the influence of technology and social media inventions on
the process of traveling as well as the reception of travel. Ultimately
the seminar will address the question what German Studies can contribute
to the history of travel as a cultural phenomenon in the German-speaking
countries.
Seminar Format
This seminar is a continuation of last year’s successful seminar “German
Travel Writing from the 18th to the 21st Century.” We received a large
number of applicants from history, literature, cultural studies, and art
history to our seminar, which speaks to the continued interest travel
holds for scholars. All members of this fall’s seminar expressed great
interest in organizing a second seminar on the topic in order to bring
together again the core group of scholars who work on travel writing and
to include new scholars as well. After the 2016 GSA conference, we plan
on developing a “network” with the core participants to extend our
presence to future conferences, to continue our academic exploration of
travel literature especially from a theoretical perspective, to explore
the publication of an edited volume, and to offer younger scholars an
academic forum in which to present their ideas. Participants will write
and pre-submit short (2500-3000) word essays related to one of the three
topics. These essays will be distributed by email in advance and will
form the basis of each day's discussion. Because the essays will have
been distributed before the seminar, on the days of the seminar each
participant is expected to briefly (5-10 minutes) highlight the main
points of his/her paper, sketch the trajectory of his/her work, and
summarize his/her theoretical frame. The rest of the seminar time will
be spent on discussing the papers in connection to the respective theme
of the seminar day.
The three days of the seminar will be structured thematically: * Day
One: Authenticity and reliability in travel writing (how are
authenticity and reliability displayed, what are the text markers for
authenticity and reliability, how do reliability and authenticity relate
to issues of genre?)
* Day Two: Narrating travel (what are the narrative possibilities of
travel literature, how are issues of non-linear narrative and chronology
negotiated, what kind of narrative theoretical models are applicable to
the study of travel literature?)
* Day Three: Genre (what implications have the various genres of travel
narratives, such as travel report, travel diary, journal column on the
text and its reception, how does genre influence the reception of the
text and its usage by the reader; how have new media such as visual
presentations, blogs etc. changed the perception of travel)
The conveners, Daniela Richter and Karin Baumgartner, will be
responsible for collecting essays by email ahead of the conference and
distributing them to the participants ca. 3 weeks ahead of the
conference. We will share the duties of moderating each day's
discussion. On the basis of our reading of the day's essays, we will
formulate a short set of discussion questions to focus each morning's
conversation that will be emailed before each session. Based on last
year’s discussion, we will ask participants to name a few (1-3) key
theoretical texts on which their work is based. We will then collect
these references and provide participants with a bibliography of the
theoretical key texts of the field. Participants will not be required to
have read these texts.
Feel free to contact the conveners with any questions:
Daniela Richter (richt2dm(at)cmich.edu)
Karin Baumgartner (karin.baumgartner(at)utah.edu)
--
Karin Baumgartner
Associate Professor German
Department of Languages and Literature
University of Utah
1400 LNCO
255 S. Central Campus Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Phone: 801-585-3001
Fax: 801-581-7581
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Editor www.SwissStudies.org
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