GSA Seminar: Gendered Violence in Literature, Theater, and Visual Arts after 1970, Montreal (03.03.2023)

German Studies Association, October 5-8, 2023, Montreal, Canada

We invite abstract proposals for the seminar "Gendered Violence in Literature, Theater, and Visual Arts after 1970", which will take place at the 47th Annual German Studies Association Conference. Deadline for submissions is March 3, 2023.

Gender and violence are inextricably linked. On the one hand, violence plays an integral part in the performativity of gender. On the other, the specificity of violence can only be understood when gender is taken into account. Because violence and gender are so culturally conditioned and historically variable, they are also deeply rooted in linguistic, narrative, medial, and aesthetic phenomena. The histories of art, literature, and film provide therefore detailed insights into how gendered violence constitutes and maintains its own myths and how it, in turn, shapes forms, mediums and genres. Querying these configurations through a constellation of aesthetic objects, this seminar seeks to establish the structural dimension at the center of all gendered violence. The seminar invites participants invested in interrogating the highly topical issue of gendered violence in literary, cinematic and other aesthetic works after 1970, i.e., after the second feminist movement. Intersectional and interdisciplinary perspectives are especially encouraged.

The seminar involves group discussions and individual presentations. Participants will read theories from gender, queer, affect, visual and media studies (approx. 80–100 pp.). We will ask participants to prepare an essay discussing an artefact of their choice within the theoretical framework of the seminar (max. 3500 words) to be pre-circulated four weeks before the conference.

Please submit a short bio (up to 100 words) and an abstract of your contribution or your interest in the topic (up to 500 words). Seminar enrollment opens on Feburary 11, 2023, and applications are due by March 3, 2023. Please submit your application directly at the GSA. You must be an active GSA member in order to apply.

Please feel free to contact the conveners with any questions:

Prof. Richard Langston, PhD, relangst@unc.edu, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Cornelia Pierstorff, cornelia.pierstorff@ds.uzh.ch, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Thomas Wortmann, t.wortmann@uni-mannheim.de, University of Mannheim