CfP: Ethnic and Ethnicized Conflict in Narrative from South Tyrol (AAIS 2014)
- Ort: Zürich, Schweiz
- Beginn: 23.05.14
- Ende: 25.05.14
- Disziplinen: Literaturwissenschaft, Medien-/Kulturwissenschaft
- Sprachen: Italienisch, Weitere romanische Sprachen
- Frist: 15.11.13
This panel proposes to investigate literature of the South Tyrolian region of Italy, focusing on how its cultural, historic and social memory is represented in narrative writing, especially in regards to ethnic and ethnicized conflict. In particular, the panel seeks to examine works written originally in either Italian or German, seeking to determine where accounts of the two ethnic groups diverge, where they intersect and at what point in time narrative memory begins to come together and starts to form a new collective memory.
In 2019 South Tyrol will mark its centennial as part of the Italian nation, but beyond the borders of the region, even today the importance of the South Tyrolian issue remains largely undervalued and unknown, especially within Italy and Europe, while on a global scale the way in which the ethnic conflict has apparently been resolved – Italy and Austria withdrew their dispute over the region from before the United Nations General Assembly in 1992 exactly twenty years ago – has raised significant interest. This panel will take into into account both South Tyrolian literatures (even though written in different languages) and investigates both sides of that region’s cultural and historical memory as represented in narrative.
South Tyrol has the arguably most active regional literary scene in Italy, with several regional editors (Raetia and Athesia, for example) prevalently specialized in publishing South Tyrolian texts. Until recently, however, narrative written in German by important writers from that region (Joseph Zoderer, Sabine Gruber, Anna Maria Leitgeb, Selma Mahlknecht, Kurt Lanthaler, Sepp Mall et al.) has been relegated to German departments, while Italian literature from and about the region has mostly been ignored (with the exception of Stefano Vassalli’s Sangue e suolo). Recent works in Italian by Francesca Melandri (Eva dorme), Lilli Gruber (Eredità), Bruno Durante (La valigia del doganiere) and Alessandro Banda (Due mondi e io vengo dall’altro: il Sudtirolo, detto anche Alto Adige) have received national acclaim and the situation is beginning to change.
Abstracts for papers focusing on both Italian and German texts are especially welcome. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to Elgin K. Eckert (elgin.eckert@gmail.com), Assistant Professor of Italian Studies, The Umbra Institute (Perugia) by November 15.
Publiziert von: cf