PROGRAM

Conference Location

All conference events (unless otherwise indicated on the program) will take place at:

David Rubenstein Forum

University of Chicago

Address: 1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637

 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4th

5:00-7:00 PM

Opening reception

University Room A

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5th

8:00–8:45 AM

Continental breakfast/Registration, Peter May Boardroom


8:00 AM–4:45 PM

Book Display, Bernard J. Delgiorno Conference Room


8:45–10:00 AM

Welcome and Presidential Forum

Peter May Boardroom •  [Zoom]

  • Anne Walters Robertson, Dean, Humanities Division (University of Chicago)

  • Catriona MacLeod, GSNA President (University of Chicago)

  • “Goethe’s Thinking Through Things,” Daniel Purdy (Pennsylvania State University)

  • “From Books to Beer, From Freemasonry to Fricassee: Working with Goethe’s (and Carl August’s) Invoices,” W. Daniel Wilson (University of London)

  • “Competing Interventions: The Clinic, Self-Care, and Cure,” Alice Kuzniar (University of Waterloo)


10:15–11:45 AM

Session 1: The Precarity of Things around 1800

Room 601 •  [Zoom] •  Moderator: Christian Weber (Florida State University)

  • “Goethe and the Disorder of Things,” Jocelyn Holland (California Institute of Technology)

  • “Unconditioning Objects,” Gabriel Trop (University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill)

  • “How Nothing Becomes a Thing,” Leif Weatherby (New York University)

Session 2: Sculpture and Aesthetics

Room 602 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Catriona MacLeod (University of Chicago)

  • “‘[...] über allen Ausdruck groß und herrlich:’ Goethe on Colossal Artworks,” Florian Breitkopf (University of Pennsylvania)

  • “Historicizing the Ideal: Goethe and the Antiquarian Sciences,” Daniel Carranza (Harvard University)

  • “The Thingly Statue and the Decline of Allegorical Self-Evidence in German Romanticism,” Chris Chiasson (Southern Illinois University)

Session 3: Goethe Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts I

Room 701 •  [Zoom] • Moderator: Jonathan Fine (Brown University)

  • “‘Exakte sinnliche Phantasie’ and the Genesis of Morphological Concepts,” Iris Hennigfeld (Leuphana University)

  • Die Wahlverwandtschaften: Plan,” John Noyes (University of Toronto)

  • “‘Zerbrochen ist das Steuer:’ The Goethean Modulation of Form,” Bryan Norton (University of Pennsylvania)


Session 4: Fabric/s and Metal

Room 702 • [Zoom] •  Moderator: William Carter (Iowa State University)

  • “Gewebe,” Martha Helfer (Rutgers University)

  • “Gespinst/Schleier,” Dorothea von Mücke (Columbia University)

  • “Iron Mendings: Götz von Berlichingen's Prosthetic Hand,” Isabelle Egger (Columbia University)

Session 5: Fashions and Luxury

University A •  [Zoom] •  Moderator: Karin Wurst (Michigan State University)

  • “Integrating Foreign Luxuries within the German Idyl,” Daniel Purdy (Penn State University)

  • “Clothing, Makeup, and Desire: Material Mediation in ‘Der Mann von fünfzig Jahren,’” Joseph Haydt (University of Chicago)

  • “Luxury and Acceleration around 1800,” Matt Erlin (Washington University)


12:00–1:15 PM

“Die Dinge und die Gelegenheiten. Die Bedeutung materieller Gegenstände für Goethes Lyrik,” Ernst Osterkamp (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Peter May Boardroom • [Zoom]

Moderator: David Wellbery (University of Chicago)


1:15–2:30 PM

Lunch, The dining room


2:30-2:45 Pm

Break, Peter May Boardroom


2:45–4:15 PM

Session 1: Goethe Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts II

Room 601 •  [Zoom] •  Moderator: Clark Muenzer (University of Pittsburgh)

  • “Flower,” Horst Lange (University of Central Arkansas)

  • “Goethe’s Yo-Yo,” Jane Brown (University of Washington)

  • “Actor as Mediator in the Hoftheater Experiments,” Ashley Clark (University of Chicago)

Session 2: Werkpraktiken/Work Practices

Room 602 •  [Zoom] Moderator: Vance Byrd

  • Das römische Carneval across Book and Journal Formats,” Sean Franzel (University of Missouri)

  • “Museum Work and the Profanity of the Temple of Art,” Alice Goff (University of Chicago)

  • “‘Alles ist Blatt’: Goethe’s Paperwork,” Bryan Klausmeyer (Virginia Tech)

Session 3: Poetic Exchange and Transformation

Room 701 •  [Zoom] • Moderator: Daniel Carranza (Harvard University)

  • “‘Gib dich mir aus freier Wahl’: Poems as Objects of Exchange in Goethe’s West-Östlicher Divan,” Eleanor ter Horst (University of South Alabama)

  • “Ways of Becoming Water in Goethe’s Lyric Poetry,” Jingsi Shen (University of Washington)

  • “Reineke's Fabulous Things: Objects, Animals, and Examples in Goethe's Reineke Fuchs,” Allan Madin (University of Pennsylvania)

Session 4: Goethe’s Kosmos: The Makeup of the World in Faust

Room 702 •  [Zoom] • Moderator: Dorothea von Mücke (Columbia University)

  • “The Elements of Stagecraft: On Clouds, Images, and Other Duplicitous Things in Goethe’s Faust,” Katerina Korola (University of Chicago)

  • “‘Nur mit dem Gold herein!’ The Creation of Metals and Origins of Metallurgy in Goethe’s Faust,” Del A. Maticic (New York University)

  • “Lord of the Fly? Mephistopheles in the World of Fashion,” Benjamin Nikota (New York University)


4:45–6:00 PM

Smart Museum of Art, Study Room Exhibition

(pre-registration required)


6:30-7:30 PM

Reception for hotel guests at the Sophy Hotel, Fireside Lounge


SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6th

8:00–8:45 AM

Continental breakfast/Registration, Peter May Boardroom


8:00 AM–4:45 PM

Book Display, Bernard J. Delgiorno Conference Room


8:45–10:15 AM

Session 1: Science and Perception

Room 601 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Jocelyn Holland (California Institute of Technology)

  • “From Farbenlehre to Geisterlehre: Goethe and Kerner on Synesthesia and Senses,” Margaret Strair (Bryn Mawr College)

  • “On Seeing Things: Goethe’s Changing States of Perception in Dichtung und Wahrheit,” Daniel DiMassa (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

  • “Goethe's Entoptic Colours via Chladni's Sound Figures,” Steven Lydon (Oxford University)

  • “Goethe’s Naturalism,” Jason Yonover (Johns Hopkins University)

session 2: Goethe and the Divine

Room 701 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Heidi Schlipphacke (University of Illinois–Chicago)

  • “Divine Precincts and the Inviolability of Life,” Joel B. Lande (Princeton University)

  • “Whence God in Goethe’s Gott und Welt?” Karin Schutjer (University of Oklahoma)

  • “Die Dinge des Divan,” David Wellbery (University of Chicago)


Session 3: Things Worth Recovering: The Goethezeit and the Future of Feminist Theory

Room 702 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Imke Meyer, University of Illinois–Chicago

  • “Apparitional Texts: Re-examining Women-authored Gothic in German Studies,” Sarah Luly (Kansas State University)

  • “Dreaming with the Orient: Benedikte Naubert and Fictions of the East,” Julie Koser (University of Maryland)

  • “Karoline von Günderrode’s Hildgund: Recovery and Reception in Contemporary Drama,” Amy Emm (The Citadel)


10:15-10:30 AM

Break, Peter May Boardroom


10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Session 1: Goethe Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts III

Room 601 • [Zoom] • Moderator, Iris Henningfeld (Leuphana University)

  • “Un-, Ein, All, Ur-, and Ewig: Goethe's Satyros and his Heterodox Things,” Clark Muenzer (University of Pittsburgh)

  • Gegenstände,” Jonathan Fine (Brown University)

  • “On Finite and Infinite Things in Goethe,” John H. Smith (University of California, Irvine)

  • Materie: What Matters to Goethe,” Jennifer Caisley (University of Cambridge)

Session 2: Ruins and Renovations: Goethe’s Römische Elegien

Room 602 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Eleanor ter Horst (University of South Alabama)

  • “‘Saget, Steine, mir an’: Substance and Resonance,” Claire Baldwin (Colgate University)

  • “The Dynamic of Ruined Things – Antiquity in Goethe’s Römische Elegien” Sebastian Meixner (Universität Zürich)

  • Carolin Rocks, “The Dynamic of Ruined Things – Love in Goethe’s Römische Elegien,” Universität Hamburg

Session 3: Value and Commodity Culture

Room 701 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Sean Franzel (University of Missouri)

  • “Goethe on Coins,” William Carter (Iowa State University)

  • “German Universalism and English Practicality: Novalis and Wedgwood,” Antje Pfannkuchen (Dickinson College)

  • “Comparisons Out of the Blue: Goethe, Wedgwood, and Novalis,” Séan Williams (University of Sheffield)

Session 4: Materiality and Theatrical Performance

Room 702 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Mary Helen Dupree (Georgetown University)

  • “Iffland’s Prompt Books and the Language of Affect,” Vance Byrd (Grinnell College)

  • “Props to Goethe: Stage Objects between Function and Symbol,” Ellwood Wiggins (University of Washington)

  • “Media of Recognition in Minna von Barnhelm,” Luca Arens (Columbia University)


12:00–1:00 PM

Lunch, The Dining Room


1:00–2:30 PM

Session 1: Gifts and Circulation

Room 601 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Elliott Schreiber (Vassar College)

  • “Regifting Goethe: Orality, Pedagogy, and the Anthology Around 1800,” Mary Helen Dupree (Georgetown University)

  • “Gift-Giving Machines: Rousseau and the Paradoxes of Gift-Giving,” Peter Erickson (Colorado State University)

  • “On the Merits of Circulation and Ideenbearbeitung: Josias Ludwig Gosch’s Fragmente über den Ideenumlauf and Novalis’s Blüthenstaub,” Dennis Schäfer (Princeton University)

Session 2: Social and Natural Landscapes

Room 602 •  [Zoom] • Moderator: Heather Sullivan (Trinity University)

  • “Goethe and Climate Change,” Beate Allert (Purdue University)

  • “Mimetic Contagion in Goethe’s ‘Sankt-Rochus-Fest zu Bingen,’” Simon Friedland (University of Chicago)

  • “Minimal Exposure: Homeopathy on Contagion and Cure,” Alice Kuzniar (University of Waterloo)

Session 3: Books and Writing

Room 701 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Carlos Spoerhase (Universität Bielefeld)

  • “Shelf Life: Goethe’s Library in a Network of Objects,” Stefan Höppner (Klassik Stiftung Weimar)

  • “Violence in Goethe’s Scenes of Writing,” Kurt Hollender (St. John’s University)

Session 4: Goethe’s Novels

Room 702 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Birgit Tautz (Bowdoin College)

  • “Painting and the Self in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,” Nicholas Reynolds (Trinity University)

  • “The Obsession with Things and Overcoming Them in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,” Susan Gustafson (University of Rochester)

  • “Ungeschickt läßt grüßen: Benjamin and Goethe’s Things in Die Wahlverwandtschaften,” Joseph O’Neil (Miami University)


2:30-2:45 P AM

Break, Peter May Boardroom


2:45–4:15 PM

Session 1: Toys and Miniatures

Room 601 •  [Zoom] • Moderator: Bryan Klausmeyer (Virginia Tech)

  • “The Fairy Tale as Fantastic Apparatus: Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s ‘Der Kuckkasten,’” Elliott Schreiber (Vassar College)

  • “Goethe’s Gondolas and the Duke’s Diamonds,” Patricia Simpson (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

  • “Kästchen: Small Objects, Narrative Episodes,” Birgit Tautz (Bowdoin College)

Session 2: Philosophy of Things

Room 602 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Leif Weatherby (New York Unviersity)

  • “The Romantic Thing as Transitional Object,” Howard Pollack-Milgate (DePauw University)

  • “Faust Thinking Things,” Christian Weber (Florida State University)

  • “Collecting and Recollecting: Goethe’s Ephemeral Thinking and the Material World,” Renata Schellenberg, Mount Allison University

  • “Kleist’s Thing,” Edgar Landgraf (Bowling Green State University)

Session 3: Physicality of Emotions

Room 701 • [Zoom] • Moderator: Julie Koser (University of Maryland)

  • “Goethe and the Prose of the Everyday,” Karin Wurst (Michigan State University)

  • “Lotte’s Bird and the Language of Sexuality in Die Leiden des jungen Werthers,” Carl Niekerk (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

  • “An Indebted Goethe? La Roche's Influence on Werther,” Maryann Piel (University of Illinois-Chicago)

Session 4: Moving Things

Room 702 •  [Zoom] • Moderator: Karin Schutjer (University of Oklahoma)

  • “Moving Textures: Affect, Touch, and Meaning in Grillparzer’s Kloster bei Sendomir,” Imke Meyer (University of Illinois–Chicago)

  • “Moving Pictures: Movement without Bildung in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,” Heidi Schlipphacke (University of Illinois–Chicago)

  • “Goethe’s Moving Plants,” Heather Sullivan (Trinity University)


4:15 PM

Art tour of the Rubenstein forum


5:30–7:00 PM

Keynote Address

“‘Äußere Form’: On Goethe’s Format Theory,” Carlos Spoerhase (Universität Bielefeld)

Peter May Boardroom • [Zoom]



7:00–9:00 PM

Dinner, City View Room


SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7th

8:30–11:30 AM

Dissertation Workshop, Breakfast


1) Faculty readers: Patty Simpson and Gabriel Trop: Romanticism

Cobb Hall, Room 219

  • Austen Hinkley

  • Ella Wilhelm

2) Faculty readers: Heather Sullivan and Heidi Schlipphacke: Goethe

Cobb Hall, Room 202

  • Ben Swakopf

  • Tianya Wang


3) Faculty readers: John Smith and Daniel Purdy: Idealism/Early Romantic Theory

Cobb Hall, Room 203

  • David Takamura

  • Joseph Haydt