German Studies has always grappled with navigating the relationship between geopolitical and linguistic-cultural spaces. Germany From the Outside brings current debates about curricular and institutional issues together with discussions about the relation between nation, language, and culture. Just as “Germany” has never been one discrete entity, “German culture” and “German language” have never been the property of one ethnic or national group.
The conference speakers will present work on perspectives on Germany that emanate, in one way or another, from outside the borders of Germany itself. This includes work on: authors who write in German but are not actually German themselves; on how literature produces reflections on the changing nature of the nation-state; or on authors who live in Germany but are in some way "outsiders." Located at the nexus of cultural, political, historiographical, and philosophical discourses, the talks will inform our institutional discussions about next directions for our discipline. |