Borrowed Wor(l)ds. Jenseits des Anführungszeichens: 11th Annual Conference of the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School, Berlin / Livestream
BORROWED WOR(L)DS
Aneignung jenseits des Anführungszeichens
29. 10. 2021 UG Holzlaube Freie Universität Berlin
This conference ventures beyond the traditional purview of literary studies, seeking to highlight the ubiquity of ›borrowings‹ in literary production at all times and places. Recent decades have witnessed a surge of interest in all forms of literary, aesthetic, and cultural appropriation. Prone to eliciting normative responses, acts of appropriation have frequently been criticized either for insufficiently paying respect to collective identities not one’s own, or for the – tacit, surreptitious, or illegitimate – incorporation of material claimed as their own by others. At stake in these debates tends to be a failure to visibly mark off the appropriated as other. This failure is epitomized by the absence of the quotation mark. On closer inspection, however, the idea of appropriation appears to rely on presumptions of auctorial origin and proprietorship the universal validity of which can and must be questioned.
Indeed, borrowing sans quotation mark appears to constitute an accepted norm, rather than exception, not only in some niches of contemporary culture (cover versions, stagings), but, more profoundly so, in numerous bodies of literature inside and outside the Western tradition. Our aim, then, is to explore, in systematic fashion, the ubiquity of literary appropriation across periods, languages, and cultures. Our point of departure is the German term ›Aneignung‹ with its particular semantics encompassing aspects such as acquisition, appropriation, and learning. Thus, in referring to the acquisition of knowledge as ›Aneignung‹, German speakers describe a shared possession rather than state an exclusive claim. Similarly, we may adopt (›zu eigen machen‹) jokes, rumors, or legends, but not possess them. ›Aneignung‹, in short, highlights the multifaceted nature of practices of literary borrowing.
Following these cues, we understand that oral and epistemic registers challenge the very idea of a ›proprietor‹ of the text. These registers open our eyes to the fact that there exists a whole gamut of varying degrees of proprietorship, whether of a personal-auctorial or of a collective nature. Oftentimes, the selfsame practices of imitation, adaptation, or reworking may be adjudicated rather differently when performed independently, or under the banner of tradition. Yet even in a culture of personal authorship, unmarked intertextual practices intent on obscuring, rather than highlighting their sources, may be perceived as a hallmark of artistic mastery and, in fact, of the literariness of a text. Other bodies of literature would seem to defy not only narrow notions of proprietorship but even the very confines of the text. Literatures such as those of the Romance Middle Ages or the many unauthored literatures of the premodern Middle East, thrive on the retelling, reworking, and rearrangement of extant material. Re-working, after all, presents one form of serious engagement with a text. It is in this vein that we contend that borrowed wor(l)ds are constitutive of literature itself.
WELCHE WELTEN LEIHT SICH DIE DICHTKUNST?
Lesungen, Performances und Gespräche mit Dagmara Kraus, Tanasgol Sabbagh, Özlem Özgül Dündar und Alexander Lehnert
Welche Welten leiht sich die Dichtkunst? Wer dichtet, hat die Sprache, die er oder sie nutzt, nicht selbst erfunden. Wie gehen Gegenwartskünstler:innen damit um? Was eignen sie sich an, was wird ihnen zugeschrieben und was ereignet sich dabei? Dem gehen Özlem Özgül Dündar, Dagmara Kraus, Alexander Lehnert und Tanasgol Sabbagh in künstlerischen Interventionen und im Gespräch mit Gesa Jessen und Alexander Kappe nach.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
BERLIN, OCTOBER 29, 2021
IN PRESENCE • STREAMED LIVE • IN ENGLISH
10:00–10:30 Uhr Welcome and Introduction
Jutta Müller-Tamm, Director of the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies
10:30 –12:15 Uhr AS A MATTER OF TEXT
Islam Dayeh, Freie Universität Berlin
Jane Gilbert, University College London
Glenn Most, University of Chicago/Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, retired
Chair: Bernhard Huß, Freie Universität Berlin
LUNCH BREAK
DIGITAL SESSION • HOSTED LIVE BY THE CONFERENCE TEAM • IN ENGLISH / GERMAN
13:30–15:30 Uhr
LA CARTE POSTALE LIGHTNING ROUND
Amevi Akpaglo Marlene Dirschauer
Sepid (Zahra) Birashk Marie Helen Klaiber
Carsten Flaig Mette Biil Sørensen
Nicolas Longinotti Jasmin Assadsolimani
Paul Wolff
COFFEE BREAK
IN PRESENCE • STREAMED LIVE • IN ENGLISH
16:00–18:00 Uhr L’OEIL EXTÉRIEUR
Gisèle Sapiro, EHESS and CNRS, Paris
Zaal Andronikashvili, Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
Maria Rubins, University College London
Ethel Matala de Mazza, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Chair: Susanne Frank, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
RECESS
IN PRESENCE • STREAMED LIVE • IN GERMAN
20:00–22:00 Uhr
WELCHE WELTEN LEIHT SICH DIE DICHTKUNST?
Dagmara Kraus, lyricist and translator
Alexander Lehnert, performance artist
Tanasgol Sabbagh, spoken-word performer
Özlem Dündar, writer
in conversation with Gesa Jessen and Alexander Kappe, Freie Universität Berlin
Organized by: Troels Andersen, Mahamadou Famanta, Gesa Jessen, Alexander Kappe, Eva Kiesele, Marie Helen Klaiber,
Nicolas Longinotti, Hanan Natour, Lukas Nils Regeler
The conference will take place in a hybrid format. Our two panel discussions—“As a Matter of Text” and “L’oeil extérieur”—as well as our cultural event, “Welche Welten leiht sich die Dichtkunst?,” will be streamed live on YouTube. Our afternoon sessions—“La carte postale” and “Lightning Round”—will be accessible on this blog on the conference day. You will be able to pose questions to all presenters via the comment function on this page. We look forward to seeing you in October!
As a Matter of Text
Streamed live at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTReqq9mfI
La carte postale
Available on this blog on the conference day.
Lightning Round
Available on this blog on the conference day.
L’œil extérieur
Streamed live at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTReqq9mfI
For panelists and session chairs only: access to pre-circulated papers. This content is password-protected.
Artistic Intervention: “Welche Welten leiht sich die Dichtkunst?”
Wer dichtet, hat die Sprache, die er oder sie nutzt, nicht selbst erfunden. Wie gehen Gegenwartskünstler:innen damit um? Was eignen sie sich an, was wird ihnen zugeschrieben und was ereignet sich dabei? Dem gehen Özlem Özgül Dündar, Dagmara Kraus, Alexander Lehnert und Tanasgol Sabbagh in künstlerischen Interventionen und im Gespräch mit Gesa Jessen und Alexander Kappe nach.
Streamed live at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTReqq9mfI
Please note that this event is held in German.