centre for anglo-german cultural relations (cagcr) annual ... · (2009) volume of the cagcr’s...

Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations (CAGCR) Annual Report for the Academic Year 2009-2010

www.qmul.ac.uk/cagcr

Introduction

The on-going fascination with what happensbetween cultures, the social trends and fashions,but also the individuals that regard themselves as“go-betweens”, continue to inform the work of ourCentre. We have become used to calling theseprocesses cultural transfers, but we should notbelieve that we are the first to do so. Students ofour unique MA in Anglo-German CulturalRelations, for instance, investigate the meaning ofcultural transfers and their agents, whom we havetermed the transferrants or mediators betweencultures. The historical dimension of thisphenomenon is considerable. In German, it wasthe literary scholar Wilhelm Scherer who wasarguably the first to have coined the concept ofcultural transfer or Culturübertragung (1888).Furthermore, he suggested that we could onlyprogress in our appreciation of other people(s) ifwe engaged in meaningful Vergleichung, that is:

comparing prominent, and less prominent,features of individual cultures and their literaturesthat would lend themselves to constructiveinteraction.

In Scherer’s time, others corrupted this approachby applying it to a rather obscureVölkerpsychologie that generated a great deal ofunnecessary, if not damaging, production ofprejudices. We, in the Centre for Anglo-GermanCultural Relations, are inheritors of the tradition ofScherer and his helpful definition of culturaltransfer, as well as its application to the analysis ofcultural exchange. Our Writers in Residence, ourrefereed yearbook ANGERMION, our annualANGERMION lecture, and literally each seminaror conference that the Centre organizes,contribute to this end: a meaningful study andauthentic experience of the Anglo-Germanheritage and its present day character. The sheerrichness of this legacy remains the Centre’s mainasset and investment into the future.

Professor Rüdiger GörnerDirector of the CAGCR

01 Queen Mary, University of London

The Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations at Queen Mary, University of London was founded in December 20051. Aims and Structure of the CAGCRThe Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relationsat Queen Mary, University of London wasfounded in December 2005. The Centre ishoused in the Department of German, within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film.The Centre’s website can be found at:www.qmul.ac.uk/cagcr

The CAGCR aims to: facilitate research on Anglo-German cultural relations with special referenceto the fields of literature, language, intellectualhistory and comparative cultural practice;disseminate said research through colloquia,international conferences, and the CAGCRYearbook ANGERMION; provide high qualitypostgraduate teaching through the Centre’s MAProgramme on Anglo-German Cultural Relations.

The CAGCR’s Director is Professor RüdigerGörner; Dr Angus Nicholls is Acting Director andDr Susanne Frane runs the CAGCR’s Writer inResidence Programme. The Centre’s researchactivities are divided into the following foursections of research interest, each of which isconvened by a staff member in the Departmentof German at Queen Mary:

• Literature (Dr Astrid Köhler)

• Language and Linguistics (Dr Falco Pfalzgraf)

• Intellectual History (Dr Angus Nicholls)

• Cultural Transfers and Drama (Dr Robert Gillett)

Within any given academic year, one of thesesections functions as the principal area ofresearch interest for the CAGCR. The principalarea of research interest for 2008-9 was CulturalTransfers and Drama; in 2009-10 the principalarea of research is Literature.

Queen Mary, University of London 02

2. Principal Area of Research for 2009-10: Cultural Transfers and Drama The Literature section of the CAGCR – convenedby the Head of the German Department, Dr.Astrid Köhler – took the lead during 2009-10 asthe Centre’s principal area of research focus. Thekey academic event for 2009-10 was a one-dayconference on the theme of London in GermanLiterature, held in honour of Dr. Patricia Howe, adistinguished and long-serving member of theGerman Department at Queen Mary. One of Dr.Howe’s main areas of research focus is thewritings of Theodor Fontane and nineteenth-century German literary realism, and sheaccordingly gave a masterful lecture on“Mapping London in the Realist Novel.” Dr.Howe’s lecture dealt with Fontane’s novelUnwiederbringlich, along with Johanna Kinkel’sHans Ibeles in London: Roman aus demFlüchtlingsleben (1861) and with JuliusRodenberg’s Die Straßensängerin von London(1863). Other contributions to the conferencespanned across German literature from thebeginning of the nineteenth- to the beginning ofthe twenty-first centuries, including such figuresas Heinrich Heine, Anna Jokl, German pop-writers of the 1960s and 1970s, and the

contemporarynovelist KatharinaHacker. Selectedpapers from theconference will bepublished in aspecial section ofANGERMIONvolume 3 (2010).

The ‘blue plaque’ marking Theodor Fontane’s Londonresidence during the years 1857-1858

Dr Falco Pfalzgraf with the President of the GfdS,Professor Rudolf Hoberg, and the Principal of QueenMary, University of London, Professor Simon Gaskell

3. The Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache comesto Queen MaryGermany’s most important government-sponsored society for the German language – theGesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) – tookthe important decision to open a London branchto be chaired by the convenor of the Languageand Linguistics section of the CAGCR, Dr. FalcoPfalzgraf. The London Branch of the GfdS wasofficially launched by the President of the GfdS,Professor Rudolf Hoberg, and the Principal ofQueen Mary, Professor Simon Gaskell, on 12March 2010. In his opening address, ProfessorHoberg spoke about a very recent large-scalerepresentative survey conducted with theparticipation of the GfdS, about Germans’attitudes toward their own language and toforeign languages. This event was also attendedby the German Ambassador to the UnitedKingdom, his Excellency Georg Boomgaarden(who made some lively interventions on thesubject of the German language) along with otherrepresentatives from the German Embassy inLondon. The London branch will continue to hostpublic lectures on the German language underthe leadership of Dr Pfalzgraf.


4. Writer in Residence ProgrammeEstablished in 2005, the CAGCR Writer inResidence programme showcases recentdevelopments in contemporary Germanliterature. This initiative is financed by theDeutscher Literaturfonds and on regular basis bythe German Academic Exchange Service(DAAD). It is administered by the GermanDepartment’s DAAD Lektorin, Dr Susanne Frane.

The CAGCR hostswriters whose work isrepresentative ofcontemporary literaturein German and enablesvisiting authors toreside at Queen Maryfor periods ofapproximately tenweeks. The CAGCRwriters in residence for2009-10 were JanBöttcher and MatthiasPolitycki. Jan Böttcherread from his novelNachglühen(Afterglow, 2008) set inStolpau, a fictionalGerman town on theriver Elbe, which hadbeen a border townbefore the fall of thewall dividing East andWest Germany. Hisnovel deals with boththe personal andpolitical difficultiesexperienced by

Stolpau’s residents during the pre- and post-unification periods. Matthias Politycki’s mostrecent novel, Jenseitsnovelle (Next WorldNovella, 2009), offers a profound meditation onmortality and miscommunication withinmarriage, presented in the classical form of theGerman Novelle. This novel is to be translated bythe renowned translator from German to English,Anthea Bell, and will appear with Peirene Pressin 2011.

5. Third Year of Teaching in the MA in Anglo-German Cultural RelationsThe CAGCR’s MA in Anglo-German CulturalRelations focuses on both the theory and practiceof cultural relations between the Anglophone andGerman-speaking worlds, covering a periodspanning roughly from 1800 until the present,and focusing on issues such a literary relations,journalism, translation studies, and foreigncultural policy in both nations. A particularhighlight of this year’s core course on The Theoryand Practice of Anglo-German Cultural Relationswas the session involving Anthea Bell, who iswithout doubt the most renowned translator ofGerman literature into English working in Britaintoday. Anthea Bell provided students with a keeninsight into the work of literary translation,focusing in particular on her English languagerendering of W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, and

reflecting uponher professionalrelationship withthis most singularof Germanauthors.

Jan Böttcher, author ofNachglühen

Renowned Translator Anthea Bell OBE


Matthias Politycki, authorof Jenseitsnovelle

Some of the dissertations written by students inthe CAGCR’s MA programme during 2009-10included:

• Toyah Buse, “Thomas Mann and England,”supervised by Professor Rüdiger Görner

• Emilie Oleron, “Heiner Müller’s Reception ofShakespeare” supervised by Professor LeonardOlschner

• Thomas Fletcher, “The Depiction of EthnicMinority Experience and Identity by TurkishGerman and British-South Asian Writers andFilmmakers,” supervised by Dr Angus Nicholls.

The performance of Thomas Fletcher – whosestudies were sponsored by a studentship forAnglo-German Cultural Relations that was kindlymade available to the CAGCR by Robert BoschUK – was particularly outstanding. For hisconsistently excellent results across all aspectsand modules of the MA programme, ThomasFletcher was award a Queen Mary College Prizefor Academic Excellence, and the Jethro BithellPrize for the best MA dissertation in GermanStudies written at any University of London

College. After finishinghis PostgraduateCertificate of Educationat Goldsmiths, Thomaswill be teachingGerman language andculture at all levels atWilson’s School,Sutton.

6. Launch of the second issue of ANGERMION,Yearbook for Anglo-German Cultural Relations(2009) by the German Poet, Durs GrünbeinDurs Grünbein is one of Germany’s most laudedcontemporary poets. His work has been awardeda number of major German literary prizesincluding the Georg Büchner Preis and the PeterHuchel Prize for Poetry. An English collection ofhis poems, Ashes for Breakfast, was published in2005, translated by Michael Hoffmann.Grünbein was invited to launch the second(2009) volume of the CAGCR’s Yearbook forAnglo-German Literary Criticism, IntellectualHistory and Cultural Transfers, ANGERMION,published by Walter de Gruyter (Berlin and NewYork). This event, held in the beautifully austeresetting of East London’s St. George’s GermanLutheran Church, saw Grünbein read some of hismost recent prose and (unpublished) poetry,along with some poems in English translation.The CAGCR wishes to thank Lufthansa AG forsponsoring this event, St. George’s GermanLutheran Church for providing such a wonderfulvenue, and De Gruyter for continuing to supportANGERMION.


Thomas Fletcher, graduate of the MA Anglo-GermanCultural Relations in 2009-10

Durs Grünbein

7. Workshop on Postgraduate AcademicPublishing in Collaboration with the Justus-Liebig-Universität GießenIn 2009, the German Department’s GermanAcademic Exchange Service (DAAD) Lektorin, DrSusanne Frane, was awarded a grant by QueenMary’s Westfield Trust in order to set up a new onlinerefereed journal for postgraduate students in thefield of literary studies. Dr Frane and the CAGCR’sActing Director, Dr Angus Nicholls, then decided tomake this a collaborative Anglo-German project byapproaching the Graduate Centre for the Study ofCulture (GCSC) at the Justus-Liebig-UniversitätGießen, a graduate school which was established asa result of the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen’ssuccessful bid in the German government’s“Excellence Initiative” for higher education funding.To begin this collaboration, a Postgraduate JournalWorkshop involving staff and postgraduates fromthe CAGCR and the GCSC was held at Dean ReesHouse on 8-9 October 2009. This workshopinvolved planning for the new online postgraduatejournal, as well as presentations by Johanna Greenand Marc Alexander from the UK’s Association ofPostgraduate Journals. The CAGCR’s new onlinejournal for postgraduates, to be named eTransfers,will be published for this first time in early 2011.

8. Joint Event with the Goethe Institute, London:Critic Meets CriticThis event, held on 6 May 2010, had as its aim adiscussion of the different literary cultures of theAnglophone and German-speaking worlds, asseen through the eyes of two very prominentliterary critics from both cultures: Erica Wagner,the Literary Editor of The Times; and ChristophBartmann, Head of the Culture and InformationDepartment at the Goethe Institute’s headquartersin Munich, and a regular literary reviewer forGerman newspapers such as the FrankfurterAllgemeine Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.The central themes of this event, chaired by theCAGCR’s Director Professor Rüdiger Görner, werethe overlaps, continuities and discontinuitiesbetween the Anglophone and German-speakingliterary worlds, with a particular emphasis on therole and fate of literature in the age of digitalculture and globalisation.


Literary Editor of The Times, Erica Wagner, withProfessor Rüdiger Görner

9. The Year Ahead: 2010-11 The 2010-11 academic year will be a challengingone both for the CAGCR and for Queen Mary’sDepartment of German. The GermanDepartment will be hosting the seventy-fourthmeeting of the Association of German Studies(AGS) of Great Britain and Ireland in April 2011.This will be the first such meeting in Londonsince 1982, and will present an opportunity toshowcase the work of the CAGCR, the

Department of German, and the College, to theGerman studies academic community of the UKand Ireland. A key focus of the conference will bethe theme of Anglo-German Cultural Relations inLondon, including a lead panel convened by DrRobert Gillett and Dr Astrid Köhler on London inGerman Literature / German Language andCulture in London, involving practitioners ofAnglo-German Cultural Relations from the fieldsof literature, theatre and cultural heritage.Representatives of the London embassies of theGerman-speaking nations – Austria, Germany,and Switzerland – will also attend the conference.

Further events planned for the 2010-11academic year will include: a major collaborationwith the Goethe Institute, the German Embassy,the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies,and Shakespeare’s Globe under the provocativetitle of Shakespeare is German; an internationalLeverhulme-funded conference on English andGerman Nationalist and Anti-Semitic Discourse;conferences on Wolfgang Hildesheimer inEngland and Ilse Aichinger in England incollaboration with the Swiss Embassy and theAustrian Cultural Forum respectively; apostgraduate workshop in collaboration with theUniversity of Munich on theme ofAlltagsurrealismus in der deutschen Literatur;and a Summer School on Cultural Relationsunder the auspices of the MOVENS internationalacademic network for postgraduate mobility.


Notes


This guide has been produced by the Publications and Web Office for the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations – Pub8462

Enquiries Concerning the CAGCR can be directed to:Dr Angus NichollsActing DirectorCentre for Anglo-German Cultural RelationsQueen Mary, University of LondonMile End Road, London E1 4NSTel: +44 (0) 207 882 2683Fax: +44 (0) 208 980 5400email: [email protected]/cagcr

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