Research Symposium / Graduate Seminar (GERM 532)
Warfare – Migration – Witch-hunt: Queer Life Writings in/of Early Modern Europe
Organized by Gaby Pailer (UBC-CENES), in collaboration with Daniela Fuhrmann (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Mixed-mode event, August 26-30, 2019
Languages: English and German. Advanced German reading knowledge is required.
Call for Contributions
This mixed-mode event is dedicated to queer life in early modern Europe focusing on the Thirty-Years-War and its aftermath, both in 17th century and in 21st century German narrative prose. From the Baroque period we’ll discuss Grimmelshausen's picaresque novels Der abenteuerliche Simplizissimus (Adventurous Simplicissimus) and Landstörtzerin Courasche (Runagate Courasche), comparing these fictional auto/biographies with real life accounts by early modern women, such as Leben Frauen Johannä Eleonoren Petersen ... von ihr selbst mit eigener Hand aufgesetzt (Life of Lady Johanna Eleonora Petersen ... written in her own hand). Secondly, we’ll investigate two new forms of hybrid between picaresque and historical novel dealing with runnagates, crossdressers, and rogues and queer life in the 17th and 18th centuries: Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll (2017) and Angela Steidele’s Rosenstengel (2015).
The event will be a four-day Research Symposium (10:00-15:00), with the option for students to take this as a 3-credit course. UBC graduate students as well as those from other institutions (under the Western Deans Agreement or via Study Mobility Agreements) are eligible to apply.
Confirmed participants are expected to present a paper pertaining to the scope of primary sources listed below. Please send a brief abstract of your planned contribution (approximately 300 words), outlining your tenative focus of investigation, to Gaby Pailer, Professor of German Literature, (pailer@mail.ubc.ca) by June 15, 2019.