International Conference on Bulgarian Modernist Literature
Conference to Be Held at Freie Universität Berlin Nov. 6 - 8, 2008
№ 337/2008 from Oct 30, 2008
A conference on Bulgarian modernist literature will be held at Freie Universität Berlin on November 6 to 8, 2008. Its theme is "Between Emancipation and Self-stigmatization? Modernist Bulgarian Literature within European Contexts," and it is being organized jointly by the Peter Szondi Institute for Comparative Literature of Freie Universität Berlin and the Institute of Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. The conference is being sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation. It is open to the public and free of charge.
Scholars from Bulgaria, Austria, Great Britain, and Germany will be meeting at Freie Universität Berlin to analyze the processes of cultural Europeanization in Bulgarian modernist literature.
One hypothesis is that this threshold epoch also forms the backdrop for social and cultural transformation in contemporary Bulgaria. During the last years of the 19th century, after liberation from Ottoman rule in 1878, Bulgaria underwent a "national rebirth" and social modernization in fast motion. In this context, literature played a central role in nation building. Simultaneously, it followed Pan-European developments in aesthetics and was influenced by such diverse movements as French Symbolism, Vienna Modernism, German Expressionism, and Russian Futurism.
Dates and Location:
- Thursday, Nov. 6 (Begin: 6:30 pm) through Saturday, Nov. 8 (Begin: 9:30 am)
- Clubhaus of Freie Universität Berlin, Goethestraße 49, 14163 Berlin, subway U3 (Krumme Lanke)
Additional information may be obtained from:
Dr. Henrike Schmidt, Peter Szondi Institute for Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin, Telephone: +49 (0)30 / 838- 570 22, Email: schmidth@zedat.fu-berlin.de