Call for Papers for a GSNA-Sponsored Panel at the 2021 MLA Convention (Toronto)

Call for Papers

The Goethe Society of North America is proud to sponsor a panel at the Modern Language Association Convention in Toronto (January 7-10, 2021):

Age and Aging in Texts by Goethe and His Contemporaries

Goethe was one of the relatively few of his generation who enjoyed an extended life span and it comes as no surprise that reflections on age and the aging process are frequent in his work. Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister undoubtedly had significant impact on the establishment of an ideological context in which the young bourgeois individual was expected to leave the parents’ house in order to become an autonomous being and, at the same time, a productive member of society (cf. Franco Moretti, Andrea Charise). Considering this framework, the elderly person who might suffer diminished economic productivity and lose autonomy when returning to the family or other support networks might seem a failure. However, while the Meister novel follows a young hero, in Goethe’s Elective Affinities the narrator takes a more critical position vis-à -vis Eduard’s enthusiasm for everything that is young and new while older individuals like the gardener highlight the values of maturity and duration. In other texts by Goethe, old age offers alternative perspectives from which modernity can be challenged. At the end of Faust II, Philemon and Baucis in their old age are strong reminders of the victims of the colonizing project driven by an ideology of progress. Even in those places where aging is depicted explicitly as a burden and obstacle (The Man of Fifty Years) new happiness is found once age is accepted and endorsed.
 
Against the backdrop of recent scholarship in historical and literary studies on old age in Western Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries (cf. Andrea Charise, Karen Chase, Susannah Ottaway), this panel seeks to explore presentations and conceptualizations of age and aging in texts by Goethe and his contemporaries. We welcome proposals from a wide range of texts and we are particularly interested in contributions that explore the topic at the intersection of literature and medicine. Beyond our overarching question of how age and aging were experienced, represented, and conceptualized in texts by Goethe and his contemporaries, topics may include (but are not limited to): What kind of values are associated with old age? How do these values inform social (in particular intergenerational) interactions (respect, stigmatization, care)? How are the categories of age, class, and gender connected (the widow, the alms receiver, the old sage)? What kind of strategies are employed in order to deal with old age or to postpone its onset (cosmetics, diet, exercise)? Is there an aesthetics of old age? What ideal of health, and what “welfare system,” emerge from the texts, and what kind of power and power discourses are implied? How do the authors deal with the pain and deterioration usually associated with aging? What are the connections between medical and literary texts regarding the conceptualization of old age?

Please send an abstract of no more than 350 words to Christine Lehleiter (christine.lehleiter@utoronto.ca) and Elisa Leonzio (elisa.leonzio@unito.it).

Deadline: March 15, 2020

2019 GSA Panels

Sessions 019, 151, 295. Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker (Closed Seminar)Fri, Sat, Sun 8:00–10:00 AM Northwest

Conveners

1. Clark Muenzer, University of Pittsburgh

2. Karin Schutjer, University of Oklahoma

3. John Smith, University of California, Irvine

ATTENDEES

• Claire BaldwinColgate University

• Jane BrownUniversity of Washington

• Daniel CarranzaUniversity of Chicago

• Jonathan FineBrown University

• Sally GrayMississippi State University

• Heidi GrekWashington University in St. Louis

• Joseph HaydtUniversity of Chicago

• Horst LangeUniversity of Central Arkansas

• Steven LydonHarvard University

• John McCarthyVanderbilt University

• Sebastian MeixnerUniversität Zürich

• Heidi SchlipphackeUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

• Ross ShieldsLeibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung

• Xuxu SongUniversity of California Irvine

• Jason YonoverJohns Hopkins University

Session 104: Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy (I): Genres of RealismFriday 2:00-4:00 p.m. Skyline 3

Moderator: Jennifer Jenkins, Pacific Lutheran University

Commentator: Karin Schutjer, University of Oklahoma

1. Lyric Realism? Poetic Phenomenology between Klopstock and ColeridgeJan Oliver Jost-Fritz, Eastern Tennessee State University

2. (Mis-)Interpreting Goethe’s Lilie in “Das Märchen”Prisilla Sanchez, University of Oregon

3. Erzähltes Leben und gestimmte Erinnerung Zum Realismus in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre und seiner Bedeutung für die Tradition des BildungsromansStefan Hajduk, University of Adelaide

4. “Zuckungen” and “Gefühlsader”: The Desire and Impossibility of Literary Realism in Georg Büchner’s Lenz – Matthew Childs, University of Washington 

Session 131: Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy (2): The Realism of Classicism, Romanticism, and ModernismFri 4:15-6:00 p.m. Skyline 3

Moderator: Elliott Schreiber, Vassar College

Commentator: John Lyon, University of Pittsburgh

1. Out of Ruin: Ideal Realism in Winckelmann, Goethe, and Modernism– Christian Weber, Florida State University

2. Goethe’s Dramatic Theory of Revelation (die Schöne Seele) – Benjamin Swakopf, Indiana University

3. Between Sais and Sense: Novalis’ Response to Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre (1794)– David Takamura, University of North Carolina and Duke University

4. Stifter and the Avant-Garde: Affect and Materiality in KalksteinRobert Mottram, Oakland University

Session 238: Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy (3): Realism Challenged by War and RevolutionSat 2:00-4:00 p.m. Skyline 3

Moderator: Alina Dana Weber, Florida State University

Commentator: Joseph O’Neil, University of Kentucky

1. The Reality of Battle: Realism in the Context of Goethe’s War Experience– Christine Lehleiter, University of Toronto

2. “Gänzlich alle Unterhaltung über das Interesse des Tages verbannen”: Goethe’s “Unterhaltungen” and the Realist Novella – Marie-Luise Goldmann, New York University

3. The Censored Present: Young Germany’s Realism – Michael Swellander, University of Iowa

Session 062: Karl Philipp Moritz’s Interdisciplinary StanceFri 10:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Executive

Moderator: Sarah Eldridge, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Commentator: Elliott Schreiber, Vassar College

1. Principles and Practice of Harmony and Balance: Objectivity/Subjectivity, Creation/Destruction, Health/Illness, and Beauty/Desolation in K.P. Moritz’s Aesthetic, Literary, Educative, and Therapeutic Worlds– Sheila Dickson, University of Glasgow

2. Karl Philip Moritz als Datenwissenschaftler und Wissenschaftstheoretiker – Robert Roessler, Harvard University

3. The Ethics of Imperfection and the Limits of Autonomy in Karl Philipp Moritz’s Writings on Aesthetics – Mattias Pirholt, Södertörn University

4. Novalis und Karl Philipp Moritz: Eine erfahrungsseelenkundliche und mythologische Spurensuche – Franziska Schlieker, Technische Universität Braunschweig

From the Executive Secretary

The 2019 German Studies Association conference in Portland, Oregon, will have a particularly sizable GSNA presence. The Society is sponsoring a seminar on “Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker,” a three-part panel on “Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy,” as well as a panel on “Karl Philipp Moritz’s Interdisciplinary Stance.” My thanks once again to the organizers of these fabulous sessions: Clark Muenzer, Karin Schutjer, John Smith, Jan O. Jost-Fritz, Christian Weber, and Mattias Pirholt.

In addition, thanks to Karin Schutjer’s leadership, the Goethe Society will also have a robust presence in the exhibition hall with a table featuring information on the Yearbook, the book series, the lexicon project, and more. Please be sure to stop by!Finally, please join us for the Goethe Society’s cash bar on Saturday, October 5, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in Galleria I, followed by the business meeting 7:30-8:30 p.m. in Galleria II.

I welcome all proposals for GSNA-sponsored panels and seminars for the 2020 German Studies Association Conference. Please send me an abstract by November 15, 2019 (my e-mail address is elschreiber@vassar.edu). The deadline for proposals for the 2021 Modern Language Association Convention is December 1, 2019, and March 15, 2020, for the 2021 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Convention. I look forward to your proposals, and to seeing you in Portland!

Elliott Schreiber, Vassar College

From the Executive Secretary

Goethe Society members and friends have a great deal to look forward to at the 2019-20 GSA and MLA conferences. GSNA-sponsored sessions span a wide range of topics and approaches from Goethe’s heterodox thought and Karl Philipp Moritz’s interdisciplinarity to broader themes of realism, colonialism and decolonization. They also encompass an equally wide range of formats, including a panel, a panel series, a seminar, and a roundtable. This diverse range not only of what we are talking about, but how we are talking with one another, speaks to the Experimentierfreude that is alive and well among the community of scholars affiliated with the GSNA.

For the German Studies Association convention in Portland, Jan Jost-Fritz (East Tennessee State University) and Christian Weber (Florida State University) have co-organized a four-part panel series on “Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy,” bringing together over 20 scholars. Clark Muenzer (University of Pittsburgh), Karin Schutjer (University of Oklahoma), and John H. Smith (University of California, Irvine) are convening a seminar at the GSA on “Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker” that likewise gathers about 20 participants around a topic that attracted intense interest at last year’s GSA in Pittsburgh. Mattias Pirholt (Södertörn University) has also put together a fascinating panel for the GSA on “Karl Philipp Moritz’s Interdisciplinary Stance.” Together, these GSA sessions include participants from institutions in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and Australia. For the 2020 Modern Language Association convention in Seattle, Jason Groves (University of Washington) and Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia) have collaborated to assemble a truly impressive roundtable comprised of 8 panelists addressing “Decolonization and the Age of Goethe.”I want to thank each of these organizers for all their excellent and innovative work. 

As a result of their hard effort, 2019-20 promises to be a banner year for the Goethe Society at both the GSA and the MLA. I hope that many of you will be able to join us in Portland and Seattle!As always, if you are interested in organizing a panel sponsored by the Goethe Society at one of the annual (incl. regional) meetings of ASECS, GSA, or MLA, please contact me.Elliott SchreiberGerman Studies DepartmentBox 72Vassar CollegePoughkeepsie, NY 12604Telephone: (845) 437-5687elschreiber@vassar.eduNote the deadlines for submission of panel proposals.

• GSA, 15 November 2019 for the 2020 convention

• MLA, 1 December 2019 for the 2021 convention

• ASECS, 15 March 2020 for the 2021 convention

We encourage all presenters to become members of the GSNA.

Elliot Schreiber, Vassar College

From the Editors of the Goethe-Lexicon

From May 2-5, 2019, the first International Workshop for the Goethe-Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts (GLPC) will be held at the University of Pittsburgh. Organized by the lexicon’s co-editors, Clark Muenzer (University of Pittsburgh) and John H. Smith (UC Irvine), this gathering of 20 collaborators from the US, England, Germany, and Switzerland, will build on the 4 GSA panels on “Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker” (which drew more than 150 conferees to its sessions last October). It also looks forward to the GSA Seminar on the same topic in the Fall, as well as the second International Workshop at Cambridge University in the summer of 2020.

The Pittsburgh Workshop will be an important step towards realizing our goal of publishing 10 entries by the end of 2019. Participants will engage in a variety of activities to address different aspects of our collective undertaking, including an ongoing conversation about the very nature of the project. The intensive, 2-day program will include:

1. a panel discussion placing the GLPC in relation to other exemplary lexica, handbooks, and dictionaries, including the Goethe-Handbuch, the Dictionary of Untranslatables, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Mauthner’s Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Aesthetische Grundbegriffe, and Keywords for Today;

2. a second panel, organized by our digital editor Bryan Klausmeyer (Virginia Tech), with presentations on “technical” matters, including a first look at the platform we will be using. Because the GLPC will be a dynamic reference work, we have included information science experts to introduce us to possible options;

3. presentations and discussions of 12 sample entries that will be made available to all participants in advance;

4. breakout sessions to discuss in small groups ideas about how the entries can be framed in general for the Lexicon. While the GLPC cannot be designed by committee, it will be productive to solicit the input of collaborators on such issues as the ideal length for entries, their style, structure, and content, as well as the kinds of Goethean concepts we want to include;

5. a public lecture by Gabriel Trop (University of North Carolina) on “Kraft: On the Potential of a Concept”; and, of course

6. a festive banquet!

In order to work as closely as possible with each other, we have limited the size of our workshops to 20 participants. Importantly, our selection criteria considered scholars at all phases of their careers, as well as geographical and cultural diversity. Members of the GSNA, which as one of the project’s official sponsors has provided some financial assistance, are welcome to contact the editors with their ideas and, of course, their willingness to become collaborators. A Call for the second International Workshop in Cambridge, England, will go out early next winter. Please let us know if you would like to get involved, especially if you have any experience in the digital humanities. If the last 12 months is an indication, there will be many opportunities in the future to come on board. And keep your eye on the next issue of the Goethe Yearbook, where we plan to publish 2 sample entries for the GLPC.

Participants in the Pittsburgh workshop are: Colin Allen (Pittsburgh, History and Philosophy of Science); Jonathan Arac (Pittsburgh, Humanities Center and English); Matthew Bell (King’s College London, German); Frauke Berndt (Zurich, German); Fritz Breithaupt (Indiana, German); Aaron Brenner (Pittsburgh University Library System); Daniel Carranza (Chicago, German); Eckart Förster (Johns Hopkins, German and Philosophy); Jonathan Fine (Brown, German); Bryan Klausmeyer (Virginia Tech, German); Horst Lange (Central Arkansas, German); Charlotte Lee (Cambridge, German); John Lyon (Pittsburgh, German); Catriona MacLeod (University of Pennsylvania, German); Sebastian Meixner (Zurich, German); Clark Muenzer (Pittsburgh, German); Angus Nicholls (Queen Mary’s University, London); John H. Smith (Irvine, German); Gabriel Trop (North Carolina, German); Christian Weber (Florida, German); Christian Wildberg (Pittsburgh, Classics).

The concepts for discussion are: Aperçu (Förster); dämonisch (Nicholls); Eigen-/Selbstliebe (Bell); Gleichnis (Weber); Gott (Lange); Geduld (Carranza); Gewissen (Breithaupt); Pantheismusstreit (Fine); Rhythmus (Lee); Schattenriß (MacLeod); Symbol (Berndt); and Urphänomen (Meixner).