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Call for Papers Theme: Writing and Screening Socialisms in an Entangled World Type: Interdisciplinary Workshop Institution: University of Tübingen Location: Tübingen (Germany) Date: 3.–4.7.2015 Deadline: 28.2.2015 __________________________________________________ Socialism is one of the paradigms that shaped the global 20th century. While it is characterized by a transcultural, universalizing utopia, socialism has actually manifested itself in a large variety of local concepts that modify, alter, adapt and localize its universalisms in time and space (e.g., Soviet-style communism, Western socialist movements, African socialism or its North Korean and Chinese versions). Socialism as an idea has been spread all over the world, regardless of whether a given society has defined itself as socialist or not, whether it was a real life experiment in society or a cultural counter concept to local or transnational power structures (such as imperialism and colonialism). Socialism interacts with the arts, with literature, with film, with humanities, with varying theories and with everyday culture which were all used to express and/or shape its differing forms. Possible varieties range from European avantgarde movements, Soviet socialist realism and North Korean nationalizing reinterpretations to African, Asian and South American anti- and postcolonial theory and writing as well as filmmaking. As a global movement, socialism has triggered a migration of concepts, people, cultural artefacts, texts and films that might not even be directly connected with socialism as such, but rather stem from its respective rootedness in local cultures. As such, socialism becomes one of the facilitators for a global cultural exchange that has yet to be investigated. The workshop aims to bring together scholars from different disciplinary contexts such as film, art, literature or intellectual history in order to ask for possible routes of transnational entanglements as a result of socialism. Leading questions could be: - How are socialisms formed locally theoretically or discursively and expressed aesthetically? - Which concepts, texts, aesthetics and discursive formations were exchanged, and which were the routes of exchange? Which local concepts were shaped or reinterpreted such as for instance ‘protosocialist’ ones which are thus brought into a dialogue with the rest of the world? - What about the vexed question of representation and othering within socialisms and their global entanglements? - How can we sketch the range of the socialist paradigm not from an ideological point of view, but from one of cultural studies both on transnational and local levels? - To what degree did the socialist experiment of the Soviet Union and the concepts it developed (e.g., Gor’kijs project of world literature, manifestations of multinationality in literature, film and the arts or aesthetic concepts such as socialist realism) impact global socialisms? - Which other points of contact, routes of exchange and/or possibilities for comparison can be found (e.g., the non-aligned movement, questions of language and translation or the liberation movements)? - Which other models can be traced apart from the Soviet Union? - Where are points of (aesthetic) resistance to be found, either for or against socialisms? - How is worldwide socialism connected with questions of mediality (cf. R. Debray, who situates socialism in the „graphosphere“)? - What are the legacies of all these dynamics in contemporary societies? Preferred are papers that look either at points of contact and transfer or at central discursive or aesthetic concepts, texts or films from both transnational and local perspectives. As a starting point, the entanglements of the Eastern Bloc with African socialisms will be at the center of attention, though not exclusively. Strongly encouraged are perspectives that help to identify global dimensions, e.g., transcontinental routes of exchange. Please submit an abstract no longer than 500 words and a short biobib to Dr. Gesine Drews-Sylla, [email protected]. Deadline: February 28th, 2015 Travel costs and accommodation of participants will be covered if at all possible. Workshop results shall be published in an edited volume. The workshop is part of the project „Entangled Cultures in ‚Second’ and ‚Third’ Worlds“ (supported by "Intramurales Förderprogramm Universität Tübingen 'Projektförderung für NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen'") which aims to establish a network of scholars on the subject. Therefore, I also encourage scholars that are generally interested in participating in the network for applications indicating your field of study and a short biobib. Contact: __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
