German Dystopian Literature and Film (AGS 2020)
CFP (AGS 2020 Panel): German Dystopian Literature and Film
Special panel at the annual conference of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Swansea University, 2-4 September 2020.
Deadline: 3rd April 2020
“The world is a machine, man an automaton”. Friedrich Georg Jünger’s assertion, from his anti-utopian work, The Perfection of Technology, cuts to the heart of almost all dystopian writing. Whether the world is expressly conceived as a mechanical construct, in which the engineer or scientist is accorded the prime social role, or whether rapid modern developments assume an irresistible life of their own, dystopias are invariably characterised by a radical reduction of freedom, meaning, and virtually every defining human trait, often in the name of “improving” the world.
We are calling for papers that consider dystopian literature or film from the German-speaking world, from the genre’s emergence, around the turn of the 20th century, to the present day. Papers could focus on, but are by no means limited to: technology, politics, society, history, or even the natural world.
Please send proposals (150-200 words) for papers of no more than 20 minutes to the panel convenor, Thomas Crew (University of Cambridge): tc502@cam.ac.uk