Research Seminars 2006-07
The seminars are organised by Dr Cathy Gelbin (cathy.gelbin@manchester.ac.uk), to whom enquiries about the seminars should be addressed.
Date: 12 OCTOBER 2006, 4.15pm
Venue: Humanities Lime Grove, room A102
Speaker: Judith Purver (Manchester),
Title: Kierkegaard's Reception of German Romanticism
A detailed study of Kierkegaard's reception of German Romanticism was described over fifty years ago as 'urgent' and 'long overdue'. It is still awaited. Foundations for it have been laid by essays on Kierkegaard' s reception of four Romantic writers, to appear in 2007 as part of a project financed by the Danish Research Council. These include an essay by me on Kierkegaard's reception of Eichendorff. Work on this revealed the presence in Kierkegaard's pseudonymous works of a complex web of allusions to eighteenth and nineteenth century German texts which could not be treated fully in an essay on one author. I am now preparing a further paper on Kierkegaard's pseudonymous works in the context of German Romantic theory and practice, which discusses Kierkegaard's reception of three texts by three further authors and seeks to demonstrate not only that he alludes to these texts, but that his pseudonymous works can be read as German Romantic novels written in Danish. At
the Research Seminar I shall speak on his reception of texts by Eichendorff and others which shed new light both on Either/ Or and on late German Romanticism. Among other things I shall examine the source of the pseudonym 'Victor Eremita' (mentioned in Foucault's 'What is an author'?) and demonstrate the difference between evidence' based on false premises and evidence that leads on to further research.
Date: 16 NOVEMBER 2006, 4.15pm
Venue: W1.13
Speaker: Kate Sturge (Aston),
Title: Translation as Contamination: Literary Translation in Nazi Germany
If, as André Lefevere has said, translation is a 'visible sign of the openness of a literary system', then Nazi Germany's wariness of translated fiction should come as no surprise. Translation as a commercial practice threatened to breach economic autarky by making payments to foreign publishers; but as importantly, as a cultural practice it risked undermining the xenophobic precept that the alien is at best inferior and at worst an existential threat to the race. In this paper I will outline Nazi censorship of literary translation, with special attention to the theme of 'contamination' that runs through state-sanctioned discourse on translation. I will argue that the terms of both condemnation and praise for translations in Nazi literary journals are informed by a fear of translation as a locus of cultural mixing.
Date: 7 DECEMBER 2006, 4.00pm (Please note different start time)
Venue: Humanitites Lime Grove, room A114
Speaker: Jeffrey Peck (Georgetown University),
Title: Being Jewish in the New Germany
The Jewish community in Germany has increased dramatically since 1989-90. On the verge of extinction when the Wall fell, the new community of over 100,000, made up primarily of Jews from the former Soviet Union, has both saved Jewish life in Germany and presented the official community with a myriad of problems. Like Germany which struggles to integrate its "foreigners" largely Turkish and Muslim, so too does the Jewish community confront issues of religious, cultural, and ethnic difference in its new and diverse population. I will address the future of evolving Jewish identity in Germany in an institutional and cultural context, focusing in particular on issues of diversity and difference as Germany and its Jewish community become increasingly like other Diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. In fact, I ask, can German Jewish life become a model for other Jewish identities in multicultural societies?
Date: 8 FEBRUARY 2007, 4.15
Venue: Humanitites Lime Grove W3.13
Speaker: Louise Crowther (Manchester University),
Title: Virtue and Vice: Spinoza's Impact on Lessing
Benedict de Spinoza (1632-77) was a pivotal figure not only during his own lifetime but also during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. However, while considerable research has been conducted into his impact considerable areas have been left unexplored, and a detailed investigation of his impact on individual writers still needs to be carried out. As a contribution to this subject, this article seeks to examine in detail just how Lessing dealt with the impact of Spinozist thought and its consequences and to analyse the extent to which he can be said to exemplify a post-Spinozist mentality in his portrayal of virtue. It discusses the intellectual and theological framework underlying the concepts of virtue and vice. In showing just how these two writers graft their own philosophies on to these existing doctrines, it demonstrates these writers' radical departure from traditional paradigms of moral conduct. The article thus explores Spinoza's ground-breaking doctrine that man had the ability to reconcile virtuous with vicious conduct and highlights the similarity of outlook that Lessing demonstrates with Spinoza, which itself reveals the Enlightenment's engagement and fascination with Spinoza.
Date: 15 MARCH 2007
Speaker: Prof. Robert Evans (University of Oxford)
Date: 10 MAY 2007, 5pm
Speaker: Geoff Eley (University of Michigan), tba