Call for papers
Performance!
Textuality, Visuality and Performativity in German Studies
7-8 March 2002
University of Cambridge, UK
Gonville & Caius College
Keynote speakers: Elizabeth Boa, Claudia Liebrand, Sander Gilman
Over the last decade the use of performance and performativity as key
concepts of critical theory has exceeded linguistics, anthropology and
sociology. Performance and performativity have been deployed as discursive
analytical tools by a variety of disciplines and theories. They have been
particularly influential on identity theories, especially those of gender
and sexuality, as well as cultural studies and research on literature,
theatre, dance and media.
We encourage interdisciplinary work which traces notions of performance,
performativity and the performative in German Studies, rethinks their highly
heterogeneous usages in theoretical discourses and/or applies these concepts
in close analyses.
Topics and possible questions may include, but are not limited to:
- Sociology and anthropology: How does German culture represent itself in
everyday 'performances' or rituals? Can this representation be considered a
self-fulfilling prophecy insofar as representation, figuration and
performance are always superseded and rendered felicitous by one another?
- Dance, theatre, performance art and the fine arts: What is the influence and
position of 'performance' as an art in 'high' culture and popular culture in
the German speaking countries? How has performance been relevant as a power influencing culture and politics?
- Language and literature: What is the influence of linguistic and cultural
performativity on literary performance? To what extent do textual
performances in German literature form and exceed concepts of individual,
cultural and sexual identity?
- Media studies and film: How does the increasing performativity of
audiovisual (analogue and digital) media challenge the cultural hegemony of
textuality? What possibilities does the relationship between representation
and performance or the performativity of representation offer?
- History: Can the question of German identity be productively
reformulated in the context of historical performativity and cultural
performance?
- Gender: How are female, male, queer, transgendered, drag and BDSM
identities based on the performance of an essence or on an enactment/ citation of cultural norms?
- Body Cult: How do the more extreme practices of body modification and
stylisation such as piercings, implants, eating disorders and body building
relate to everyday enactments of corporeal norms and images?
- Illness and trauma: How can they be considered performances as they exceed
the control of the subject? Can performance and performativity reconfigure
illness and trauma?
We invite interested scholars � especially younger researchers and graduate
students � to submit 20-minute paper abstracts of approximately 300 words in
English or in German by 15 November 2001 in the body of an email to:
performance@witty.com.
We intend to publish a selection of papers.
Organizing Committee
Carolin Duttlinger cd245@cam.ac.uk
Lucia Ruprecht lr222@cam.ac.uk
Michael Gratzke mg278@cam.ac.uk
Astrid-Elke Kurth aeak2@cam.ac.uk
Please address further questions to performance@witty.com
