Department of German

International Colloquium

Interactions: Contemporary German Literature’s Dialogue with the Arts

The Department of German of the University of Leeds is organising a colloquium which will be held from 5-7 May, 2004 at Fairbairn House, Leeds. Click here for a provisional programme.

The focus will be on an exploration of the “dialogue” — in the sense of reciprocal influences — between contemporary literature in the German-speaking world and the visual and performing arts.

We welcome, as our special guest the writer, actor and director Steffen Mensching (click here for details) and acknowledge the generous support of the

Possible areas for consideration are:

Text & Music

Musical form in literary works
Musical adaptations
Opera libretti
Poetic texts and popular music (e.g. jazz, rock, pop, rap, techno)
Slam Poetry

Text and Visual Images

Literature and photography
Literaturverfilmungen
The poetics of filmic/photographic narration
Literature and painting/sculpture/architecture

‘Total Works of Art’

Collaborative experiments between literary, musical, visual and performing artists

We hope, in collaboration with cultural organisations, to bring together academics and practitioners from a number of different countries.

The event continues the series of successful international colloquia initiated by Arthur Williams and Stuart Parkes at the University of Bradford in 1988. It is supported by the Department of German and the School of Modern Languages & Cultures of the University of Leeds.

Expressions of interest and/or offers of papers (with abstract) can be made to: Frank Finlay (gllff@leeds.ac.uk ) or Ruth Owen (r.j.owen@leeds.ac.uk) by the end of January, 2004 at the latest.

Our most recent conference in Leeds (May 2001) yielded a special issue of German Life & Letters devoted to ‘Emerging Writers’.

The present event will be one of the contributions of the German Department to the celebration of the centenary of the University of Leeds.

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