2nd Internet-Conference: October 18 - November 5, 1999
2nd Stade Colloquium: November 20-21, 1999
Deadline for papers: October 4, 1999
Topic: “What is Cultural Difference?”
The Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Cultural Difference at
Tamkang University (ROC) and the Institute for European and Modern
German Literature at Hagen University (Germany) invite contributions to
an internet-conference followed by a colloquium at Stade (Germany). The
topic of both events will be “What is Cultural Difference?”
With that internet-conference and the following colloquium we continue
our long-term research project “Persecution and the Consolidation of
Cultures”.
The interplay between the consolidation of collective identities on the
one hand and the formation and/or persecution of minorities on the other
has been widely studied in various disciplines. Different from earlier
expectations, there is no general process of rationalisation that would
finally eradicate a potential for violence within collective identities.
Such a potential seems to be a constitutive element of their formation,
affirmation or reaffirmation. In a first phase of our project we plan to
take stock. We want to explore, to compare and to test the conceptual
tools designed and used by authors from different disciplines to study
this topic.
Our opening events last year were dedicated to the topic “Hermeneutics
of Persecution.” At an internet-conference followed by the 1st Stade
Colloquium we explored that topic by critically re-assessing the work
of René Girard. In the present year we move on to a more systematic
level of questioning.
Still we are trying to take stock. What is cultural difference? Which
tools are being used to think, conceive, and theorise cultural
difference? In which contexts and to achieve what goals are we relying
on that term, concept—perhaps myth? Which theoretical, practical,
existential problems are we trying to solve by using that term? How are
theories of cultural difference related to such problems? Are disputes
between different theories of cultural difference theoretical disputes,
are they perhaps practical, political ones? Is cultural difference
conceivable without the factor of persecution? That is perhaps the most
important question, leading directly into the debate on
citizenship—multicultural, differentiated, cultural, transnational
citizenship, to mention just a few terms that have been coined in this
debate. And that again is only one of many debates tied to a particular
understanding of cultural difference.
Scholars from all related disciplines are invited to participate. All
contributions will be made available on the internet.
You can contribute to this project in one or more of the following
formats:
1. Send a full length and unpublished paper. Pending funding and
depending upon what we get, we will try to find a publisher for those
papers after the conference.
2. Send a specific. That format would be shorter and less formal than a
regular paper. A specific could be any form of reflection or remark you
might consider of interest.
3. Send background material of any kind that could help us to get the
discussion going. It could be a paper you may have written earlier,
published or unpublished; it could be a chapter or section from a book;
it could be a bibliography; it could be a report on some conference
dedicated to a related topic.
For registration and further information contact one of the organisers
by Email.
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Duessel
Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Cultural Difference
Tamkang University, Taiwan, ROC
Email: duessel@mail.tku.edu.tw
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schoedlbauer
Institute of Modern German and European Literatures
Hagen University, Germany
Email: Ulrich.Schoedlbauer@FernUni-Hagen.de
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From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
CFP@english.upenn.edu
Full Information at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/
or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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