[Mediaevistik] Call for Papers: GSA, Wash., DC, 8.-11.Okt. 2009

[Markus Stock]

CALL FOR PAPERS ­ Medieval/Early Modern

Thirty-Third Annual Conference of the German Studies Association in
Washington, D. C.
October 8-11, 2009
www.thegsa.org

YMAGINA (Young Medievalist Germanists in North America,
http://www.ymagina.org) is pleased to announce a call for papers for the
following sessions at the 2009 GSA conference in Washington, D.C.:

1. Bending Boundaries in Medieval German Culture
Papers on all aspects of boundaries (social, gender, legal, political,
spatial, topical, topological) and their transgressions, subversions, and
(re-)affirmations in medieval culture; characterizations of boundary
benders, their failures and successes; witnessing boundary bending and
individual, legal, or social responses to it; (in)visibility of boundary
bendings.

2. Constructing Medieval German Readers
Papers that explore how medieval and early-modern texts construct their
audience. Possible topics include the split (or lack thereof) between the
reader and the patron; authorial strategies and narrative techniques that
shape or define the intended reader; ³gentle readers² vs. hostile readers;
awareness of or expectations regarding readers¹ responses; medial shifts and
the construction of readers (e.g. oral/written; manuscript/print).

3. Obscenity in Premodern German Culture
Papers that explore the phenomenon of premodern obscenity: its purpose,
rhetoric, functions, strategies, intended audience, continuities and
discontinuities with its modern counterpart, as well as specific kinds of
obscenity (legal obscenity, courting obscenity, courtly euphemism,
apotropaic actions, carnival, scatology, etc.)

We seek 15- to 20-minutes papers, in English or German. Please send an
abstract (max. 250 words) and a brief CV that includes institutional
affiliation by Friday, February 6th, 2009, to BOTH of the following
organizers (E-MAIL submissions only, please):

Dr. Olga Trokhimenko
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Univ. of North Carolina Wilmington
https://mail.uncw.edu/owa/?ae=PreFormAction&t=IPM.Contact&a=Mail#
Wilmington, NC 28403, USA
trokhimenkoo at uncw.edu

Dr. Markus Stock
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
markus.stock at utoronto.ca