American Association of Teachers of German

Women Writers and ‘Culture is Politics’
40th Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Feb. 26-March 1, 2009
Hyatt Regency - Boston, Massachusetts

In the recent years, books by German-language writers as divers as Elfriede Jelinek, Hanife Gashi, and Christa Wolf have addressed the war in Iraq, honor killings, and the ill effects of the repressed on physical well-being. But also translations of Azar Nafisi’s reflections on teaching literature in Teheran after the Islamic culture revolution and Mende Nazer’s memoir of enslavement have found a receptive audience in Germany. This panel would offer a forum for textual analysis of violence affecting women and their reactions as writers.

Especially in times of war, exile, and totalitarianism, women have articulated innovative, critical, and incendiary political thoughts. However, even in a democratic culture the need for emancipatory writing may arise because of violence against certain individuals or groups. How have readers reacted to what might be considered an assault by words? How have women affected their society through the power of words? And how has ‘culture is politics’ revealed itself as gendered? Please e-mail one-page proposals to Sylvia Schmitz-Burgard (sschmitz@holycross.edu ) by September 15.

Deadline:  September 15, 2008

Sylvia M. Schmitz-Burgard
Assistant Professor of German
College of the Holy Cross
sschmitz@holycross.edu

405 Stein Hall
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610

Phone: 1-508-793-3305
Fax: 1-508-793-3708

The complete Call for Papers for the 2009 Convention will be posted in June: www.nemla.org. 

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA panel; however panelists can only present one paper.  Convention participants may present a paper at a panel or seminar and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.