School of Languages, Linguistics and Film

Bodensee. Transnational Literatures of a Cultural Region

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8 May 2019 - 10 May 2019

Time: 7:00 - 6:00pm
Venue: 8th May: Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, SW7 1PQ 9th-10th May: Bedford Room G37, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

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Wednesday, 8 May 2019
Venue: Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, SW7 1PQ
19.00     Verena Roßbacher and Alissa Walser Bilingual Reading and Discussion
Moderators: Rüdiger Görner (London) and Jürgen Thaler (Bregenz)

Thursday and Friday, 9-10 May 2019
Venue: Bedford Room G37, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU - from 10am

The extended area around Lake Constance/Bodensee, encompassing the Vierländereck of the surrounding parts of Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, has long been perceived as a transnational cultural and economic space. It defines itself as such in the International Bodensee Konferenz, and is promoted as an inter-regional area by the European Union.

The conference will focus on writers from the 19th century to the present who have either resided in the wider area, and/or have depicted it in their work: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Jacob Picard, Hermann Hesse, Franz Michael Felder, Martin Walser, Michael Köhlmeier, Arno Geiger, Verena Roßbacher, Alissa Walser, Peter Stamm, Ursula Krechel, W.G. Sebald, Jacob Picard, Thomas Hürlimann, Karl-Heinz Ott and others.

This event will take stock of literary traditions and recent developments as well as enabling new views on the question of trans/national literatures. The programme includes readings by Verena Roßbacher and Alissa Walser on 8 May, and by Arno Camenisch on 9 May.

Conference organisers: Andrea Capovilla (Ingeborg Bachmann Centre, IMLR) and Rüdiger Görner (Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations, QMUL).

For a detailed event programme and to register, please visit the Bodensee Konferenz website.