The Political Uses of Literature: Comparative Approaches, Theoretical Perspectives

> Can contemporary debates about globalization learn from interwar conversations about literary internationalism?
> To what extent do contemporary critiques of realism (e.g. under the "capitalist realism" label) echo these historical debates?
> Should we try to make a case for literature's political uses (as opposed to its more narrowly ethical uses)?

In addressing these and many other related questions, the conference "The Political Uses of Literature: Comparative Approaches, Theoretical Perspectives" places historical debates about the international(ist) and global scope of politicized writing and the uses of literature in dialogue with more recent discussions of these topics. It is not our aim to suggest that the historical debates, e.g. from the interwar years, can simply be 'updated' for our own contemporary moment, but rather that an attention to the earlier debates can productively defamiliarize contemporary discussions and draw attention to neglected avenues of discussion.

WITH:
Hunter Bivens (Santa Cruz)
Sandra Fluhrer (FU Berlin/Berkeley)
Benjamin Kohlmann (Regensburg)
Steven Lee (Berkeley)
Ivana Perica (LMU Munich)
Aurore Peyroles (Frankfurt)
Gabriel Rockhill (Villanova)
Christoph Schaub (Vechta)
Galin Tihanov (Queen Mary University of London)
Rebecca Unterberger (Klagenfurt)
Dirk Wiemann (Potsdam)

Respondents:
Daniel Hartley (Durham)
Sebastian Schuller (LMU Munich)
Vid Stevanović (LMU Munich)

The conference will take place online. For the Zoom link, please email us at ivana.perica@lrz.uni-muenchen.de and benjamin.kohlmann@ur.de.