Dream of the Other Europe: Rethinking Germanistik through the Balkans

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

Sponsored by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies and Croatian Studies at the University of Waterloo, this conference examines how Germanophone writers from the Balkan countries contribute to recent discussions of migration, displacement, impermanence, and what Azade Seyhan calls the “geographies of memory.”  From Herta Műller to Irena Vrkljan, these contemporary writers develop a unique voice that expresses the vicissitudes of the multilingual self.  They devote themselves to creating a poetics of exile. This rich literature inhabits the ambiguities of what Homi Bhabha calls a “Third Space” that refuses to reify oppositions between nationalities and ethnicities.  In so doing it often mimics and subverts the ethnic, class, and gender stereotyping of the Balkan immigrant.

At this conference, the invited speakers will investigate how this new body of writing attempts to come to terms with the history of South-Eastern Europe in the 20^th century, especially post-1989 developments, and how it enters into dialog with the problem of historical and national amnesia.  For the exile writer, Croatia, Bosnia, or Rumania may or may not offer a nostalgic dream of another Europe; Germany too may become other than one’s dream of Europe.  But, in the end, these writers lead us to reflect on our own position as reading from a distance.

The conference will be inaugurated by a reading (in Croatian, German and English) by the Swiss-Croatian poet, Dragica Rajčić, the evening of Friday, February 3^rd at 7 pm.  This special event will be held at the home of Professor Alice Kuzniar, followed by a wine-and-cheese reception sponsored by the Swiss Consulate.

You may view the other works by Dragica Rajčić here.

Please register

A light breakfast and lunch will be provided on the day of the conference.

For further information please contact:  Professor Alice Kuzniar ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Friday, November 25, 2011, 2:00 pm in ML 245

Tanya Romaniuk and Susan Ehrlich (York University)

On the Interactional Import of Self-Repair in the Courtroom

How are certain conversational resources used for specific purposes in institutional talk? This talk provides insights into the analysis of interaction in the courtroom. It examines how repair, a resource commonly used in any interaction, is used in the courtroom in the service of institutionally-specific tasks and constraints.

Susan Ehrlich (Professor, Linguistics and Women's Studies) has published in the areas of discourse analysis, language and gender, linguistic approaches to literature and second language acquisition. Her books include Point of View: A Linguistic Analysis of Literary Style (Routledge 1990), Teaching American English Pronunciation co-authored with Peter Avery (Oxford 1992) and Representing Rape: Language and Sexual Consent (Routledge 2001).

Tanya Romaniuk (PhD student in Applied Linguistics) has research interests in sociocultural linguistics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, language and gender, institutional talk, broadcast talk, and political communication. She is currently writing her dissertation on the interactional analysis of laughter in broadcast news interviews.

This talk will be given in English.

Poster

November 15 to December 15, 2011

Photo exhibition: The Wall: A Border through Germany.

Modern Languages atrium

The year 2011 marks 50 years of the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The exhibition provides insights and background information of the events from the construction of the Wall to its demolition in 1989. The language of the exhibition is English.

For parking availability please see the following link:
http://uwaterloo.ca/map/#parking
Parking rates are subject to change.