‘I don’t get it’: Alterity and Ethnography in West Berlin
A seminar by Dr Mario Grizelj (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich) for the Centre for Translating Cultures
A Translating Cultures Seminar. Knowledge of German not essential!
| A Centre for Translating Cultures seminar | |
|---|---|
| Date | 21 June 2017 |
| Time | 15:30 to 17:00 |
| Place | Queens Building 1G |
Event details
Abstract:
This contribution takes ‘Translating Cultures’ very seriously: What does ‘alterity’ actually mean? What is described how and by whom as ‘strange’ – as opposed to ‘alien’? How do writers deal with alterity? What are the narrative strategies to differentiate between social and cultural strangeness? ‘Alterity’ will then be linked with an exploration of an ‘ethnographical’ approach to literature. In conclusion two reports on West Berlin, based on diaries, will serve as case-studies for participatory observation in the writing process: Witold Gombrowicz’s Berliner Notizen (2013) and Nicolaus Sombart’s Journal Intime: Return to Berlin (1982/83).
Dr. Mario Grizelj is Professor for German at the Institute for German at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. His current work includes the consideration of the ‘religious turn’, covering the 17th to the 21st centuries. His most recent book will appear in July 2017: Wunder & Wunden. Religion als Formproblem von Literatur (Klopstock – Kleist – Brentano)
Location:
Queens Building 1G
