Bounded Narratives: Containment and Exclusion in German-language Literature of the long nineteenth Century

Bounded Narratives: Containment and Exclusion in German-language Literature of the long nineteenth Century

23-24 March 2023

Durham University

In the nineteenth century increasingly virulent forms of globalization and nationalism, the latter ‘grounded and bounded by the problematics of territory and identity’ (Vilashini Cooppan), went hand in hand. In this field of tension German-language literature of the long nineteenth century registers an uncertainty about its own borders that parallels the uncertainty around ‘Germany’ itself as an idea. As the German-speaking countries underwent transitions that resulted in the emergence of a unified nation state, the question of enclosure and exclusion in an increasingly globalized world — the often invoked and subverted bounds of Heimat — reverberated on a political level. This conference seeks to consider the ways in which literary narratives reflected these shifts and were, in turn, defined and shaped by practices of containment and exclusion, in a both topical and formal, i.e. aesthetically self-referential respect: German-language literature across the century has faced charges of a rigid inwardness, as Heimatliteratur insufficiently aware of the world beyond itself. Meanwhile, the figure of the outsider reappears and returns across the century in changing guises, not least in the form of the colonial foreigner, the sexual deviant, or the uncanny other. 

With the drive to define a national canon and advances in paper production, typesetting, and bookbinding came the consolidation of sanctioned textual spaces: the standardization of the printed page and of the book as commercial product. What happens, then, when we pay attention to the outsides as much as to the insides of texts, both material and otherwise? How do texts reflect on their own exclusions — typographical, representational, narrative? This conference seeks to open up a discussion of narrative boundaries that pays attention to representational and methodological practices of exclusion and inclusion, as well as to the slippery figure of the boundary or bounding line. We seek to hold open a critical attitude towards established canonical forms and to draw continuities between nineteenth-century discourse and contemporary discussions around inclusivity and marginalization. 

Please contact Polly Dickson (polly.l.dickson@durham.ac.uk) or Claudia Nitschke (claudia.nitschke@durham.ac.uk) for further information, and to register to attend. 

Conference Programme:

• Download our Bounded Narratives 2023 programme

Day 1:  Thursday 23 March

Day 2: Friday 24 March

Please contact Polly Dickson (polly.l.dickson@durham.ac.uk) or Claudia Nitschke (claudia.nitschke@durham.ac.uk) for further information, and to register to attend.