School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Memories of 1968: International Perspectives
An international conference
Hinsley Hall, Leeds
17- 18 April 2008
The events of 1968 continue to generate widespread interest and controversy among scholars, nearly forty years after student and worker movements erupted across an international stage. In the West, 1968 was associated with the coming of age of the baby boomers, the growth of the New Left, protest against authoritarian attitudes and practices in society, as well as opposition to the Vietnam War. In the Soviet block, on the other hand, it was associated with the Prague Spring, and in China with the Cultural Revolution of Mao’s Red Guard.
Perhaps more than any other moment in post-war history, 1968 has been consecrated within different national cultures and elevated to the realm of the mythical. Moreover, the events of 1968 are nowadays inseparable from their subsequent representation through the media of literature, cinema and theory. While the 1968 events themselves have been the subject of extensive international comparison, and important work has been done on representations of 1968 in literature, film and theory in a number of countries, few if any scholars have compared the subsequent representations of 1968 within these different national settings.
The purpose of this conference is therefore to compare and discuss representations of 1968 within different national contexts. How has 1968 been (re-)produced and/or contested within different national cultures and how do these processes reflect national preoccupations with order, political violence, freedom, youth, authority, self-expression? How has the memory of 1968 been constructed in different media (film, literature, biography, monuments, etc.) and theoretical frameworks (philosophy, sociology, historiography)? Is there a collective social memory of 1968 and does this memory cross different national cultures?
Keynote speakers include Marco Antônio Guerra (São Paulo), John Foot (London / Milan), Martin Klimke (Heidelberg / Washington D.C.) and Janette Habel (Paris).
The conference is being organised by Ingo Cornils, Sarah Waters, Alan O’Leary and Yang Lan from the departments of German, French, Italian and East Asian Studies respectively at the University of Leeds.
Please follow the links below for further information:
Registration (Word document)
Programme (Word document)
Tourist attractions and media links
Please direct queries to Mercedes de Birch at m.c.debirch@leeds.ac.uk, Tel: 0113 343 3285, Fax: 0113 343 3517.