The Symposium
Information and Announcements (NEW!)
Conference schedule
Participants
Participant list with bios and abstracts
Past symposia
Sebald links
Sebald Bibliography
Press Release

The Symposium

The Third Occasional Davidson Symposium on German Studies (March 13-16, 2003) will address the works and influence of W.G. Sebald. Max Sebald's untimely death in December, 2001, has given scholars, critics, and readers alike pause, not only to mourn his passing, but also to assess his oeuvre and impact. The symposium will be intimate (2 co-keynote addresses; 24 presentations; no concurrent sessions), with time for discussion and reflection and useful feedback (roundtable discussions), and with a celebratory evening of dramatic readings in English and German.

Davidson College has held two previous German studies symposia: the first, "German Studies as Cultural Studies" (1995) was the basis for the book A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies (eds. Scott Denham, Irene Kacandes, and Jonathan Petropoulos; U Michigan P, 1997) and the second, "Approaches to Weimar" (1997) the basis for Unwrapping Goethe's Weimar: Essays on Cultural Studies and Local Knowledge (eds. Burkhard Henke, Susanne Kord, and Simon Richter; Camden House, 2000). We expect a third volume of essays to come from this symposium.

Davidson College is conveniently located near Charlotte, NC, and is especially beautiful in March.

Symposium organizer
Scott Denham
Assoc. Prof. of German
Dept. of German and Russian Box 6932
Davidson College Davidson, NC 28035-6932
tel: 704.894.2855 / fax:-2881
scdenham@davidson.edu
http://www.davidson.edu/academic/german/denham/denham.html

Information and Announcements

• NEW. Essays based on papers given at the Symposium will appear in a new book. Coming Spring 2005. Reading W.G. Sebald: History, Memory, Trauma. Edited by Scott Denham and Mark R. McCulloh. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005. (Forthcoming.) The volume includes an unpublished interview with Sebald and over twenty essays.
• Call for papers. Lise Patt at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry is putting together a volume on W.G. Sebald and the Photographic Image. Information here. Deadline 15 Sept 2004.
• NEW. James L. Cowan's new essay on "Sebald's Austerlitz and the Great Library" is here.
• Claudia Öhlschläger and Michael Niehaus hosted a conference on Sebald at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, sponsored in part by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, in March, 2004. Participants and attendees here.
• Lilian Furst and Peter Fritzsche were keynote speakers. Professor Lilian Furst (Comparative Literature, UNC Chapel Hill) and Professor Peter Fritzsche (History, University of Illinois) delivered back-to-back complementary keynote papers; Christian Hunt responded and moderated an open round-table discussion of both their papers. Furst is known for her pioneering work on European literary realism, though her recent writing has concentrated on narrative strategies in medical case histories in history and literature. Fritzsche's work centers on German and European cultural history. His recent publications have addressed memory and modernism.
• Mark McCulloh's book on Sebald, first monograph in English, published by the University of South Carolina Press. Information here.
• Ruth Franklin, who is a symposium participant, has an essay on Sebald's After Nature in the Sept. 23rd, 2002, issue of The New Republic.
• DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) supported the symposium with a major grant. The New York office of the DAAD will support the symposium, as it has the previous two, with a major grant for U.S. travel and room and board costs.
• The McGaw Lectureship of Davidson College supported the symposium with a major grant.
• Davidson Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs Clark Ross supported the symposium with a grant from his office.
• Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award funds supported the symposium with a major grant. Two teachers each year are selected for this award. Symposium organizer Scott Denham was one of the 2002 recipients and put his award toward supporting the symposium.
• The Max Kade Foundation, Inc. (New York) supported the symposium with a major grant. This is the first time the Max Kade Foundation has supported the work of teaching and scholarship at Davidson College. We welcome the Foundation's support warmly.

7:30pm-9:45pm

(times approx.)
8:00
8:20
8:40
9:00

welcome and panel 1
Scott Denham & Mark McCulloh - opening remarks

>Karin Bauer, "Terrible Connectedness"
>Katja Garloff, "Story and History"
>Stefan Gunther, "Holocaust as the still point of worlds"
>discussion and questions

9:00-10:30am

panel 2

>Anne Fuchs, "Victim Discourse and Cultural Memory"
>Maya Barzilai, "Photography and Traumatic Memory"
>Jan Ceuppens, "Nachgezeichnet, nacherzählt..."
>discussion and questions

panel 3

>Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, "Presence and Absence"
>Ben Hutchinson, "Narrative Status and its Implications"
>Mark McCulloh, "Allusions, Affinities, and Transcendence"
>discussion and questions

panel 4

>Jonathan Long, "Memoir and Archive"
>Ruth Franklin, Sebald and the Amateur"
>Christina Szentivanyi, "Texts of Trauma and Testimony"
>discussion and questions

panel 5

>Gerald Fetz, "Non-fictional Essays"
>Susanne Vees-Gulani, "Luftkrieg und Literatur"
>Wilfried Wilms, "Sebald's Repression Hypothesis"
>discussion and questions

keynote addresses
2003 McGaw Lectures at Davidson College

>Lilian Furst, "Realism, Photography, and Degrees of Uncertainty"
>Peter Fritzsche, "Sebald's Twentieth-Century Histories"
>Respondent, Christian Hunt
>discussion and questions

public reception to follow

Hodson Hall, Cunningham Fine Arts Building

9:00-10:30am

panel 6

>Martin Klebes, "Photography in Sebald"
>David Darby, "Landscape, Photography, Memory"
>Patrick Lennon, "Referentiality"
>discussion and questions

panel 7

>Russell Kilbourn, "Intertextuality"
>Brad Prager, "Sebald's Kafka"
>Sara Firedrichsmayer, "Elective and Other Affinities"
>discussion and questions

panel 8

>Mark Ilsemann, "Places in Sebald"
>John Zilcosky, "Travels in Sebald"
>Michael Niehaus, "The Institutional in Sebald"
>discussion and questions

roundtable discussion
Christian Hunt, moderator

Sebald in His Own Words: A Gala Celebration

>welcome
>readings from Sebald by Brenda Flanagan, Burkhard Henke, Audrey McCulloh, Karl Plank, Katharina Schallmaier

>recorded readings and interviews by W.G. Sebald, selected and introduced with commentary by Gordon Turner

>formal public reception follows in the atrium

Tyler-Tallman Hall, Sloan Music Building

See the program here.

Schedule in Brief

Thursday, March 13, 2003

day
participants arrive
dinner
welcome; Denham and McCulloh
three papers
nightcaps with informal discussion

Friday, March 14

breakfast
three papers
coffee
three papers
lunch
three papers
coffee
three papers
dinner
Furst and Fritzsche keynote addresses; Hunt as respondent and moderator
Discussion
Nightcaps with more discussion

Saturday, March 15

breakfast
three papers
coffee
three papers
lunch
three papers
coffee
roundtable discussion; Hunt as moderator
dinner
Gala evening: Sebald in his own words (recordings of Max Sebald reading, provided and moderated by Gordon Turner) and readings from Sebald's works by colleagues
Public Reception and discussion
nightcaps with more discussion

Sunday, March 16

breakfast
concluding roundtable discussion; Hunt as moderator
mid-day departures

Participants Participant list with bios and abstracts

1. Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, aaliagab@email.uncc.edu
2. Maya Barzilai, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, brmaya@mscc.huji.ac.il
3. Karin Bauer, McGill University, Karin.bauer@mcgill.ca
4. Jan Ceuppens, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, jan.ceuppens@chello.be
5. David Darby, University of Western Ontario, ddarby@uwo.ca
6. Scott Denham, Davidson College, scdenham@davidson.edu (organizing, no paper, volume co-editor)
7. Gerald Fetz, University of Montana, fllgaf@selway.umt.edu
8. Ruth Franklin, The New Republic, rfranklin@tnr.com
9. Sara Friedrichsmeyer, University of Cincinnati, sara.friedrichsmeyer@uc.edu
10. Peter Fritzsche, University of Illinois, pfritzsc@uiuc.edu
11. Anne Fuchs, University College Dublin, Afuchs@eircom.net
12. Lilian Furst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
13. Katja Garloff, Reed College, Katja.Garloff@reed.edu
14. Stefan Gunther, USDA Graduate School & University of Maryland, Stefan_Gunther@grad.usda.gov
15. Christian Hunt, St. John's College, Oxford, christian.hunt@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk (commentator)
16. Ben Hutchinson, Queens College, Oxford, ben.hutchinson@queens.oxford.ac.uk
17. Mark Ilsemann, Princeton University, ilsemann@princeton.edu
18. Russell Kilbourn, McMaster University, rjakilbourn@sympatico.ca
19. Martin Klebes, Northwestern University, mklebes@northwestern.edu
20. Patrick Lennon, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, plennon@vub.ac.be
21. Jonathan Long, University of Durham, j.j.long@durham.ac.uk
22. Mark McCulloh, Davidson College, mamcculloh@davidson.edu (presenting, volume co-editor)
23. Michael Niehaus, Universität Essen and Universität Bochum, MchNiehaus@aol.com
24. Brad Prager, University of Missouri-Columbia, pragerb@missouri.edu
25. Christina Szentivanyi, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, szentivanyi@hotmail.com
26. Gordon Turner, University of East Anglia Norwich, camberley.road@virgin.net (no paper)
27. Susanne Vees-Gulani, University of Michigan, vees@umich.edu
28. Wilfried Wilms, Union College, wilmsw@union.edu
29. John Zilcosky, University of Toronto, zilcosky@chass.utoronto.ca

Photograph of participants is here.

Past Symposia

Davidson College has held two previous German studies symposia: the first, "German Studies as Cultural Studies" (1995) was the basis for the book A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies (eds. Scott Denham, Irene Kacandes, and Jonathan Petropoulos; U Michigan P, 1997) and the second, "Approaches to Weimar" (1997) the basis for Unwrapping Goethe's Weimar: Essays on Cultural Studies and Local Knowledge (eds. Burkhard Henke, Susanne Kord, and Simon Richter; Camden House, 2000).

Sebald links

• Jonathan Long (Symposium speaker) and Anne Whitehead have a new book on Sebald. W.G. Sebald: A Critical Companion. Eds. J.J. Long and Anne Whitehead. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2004. The volume contains essays by several Symposium participants. (May, 2004)
• A new book on Sebald: Görner, Rüdiger, ed. The Anatomist of Melancholy: Essays in Memory of W. G. Sebald. Munich: iudicium, 2003.
• Gregor Dotzauer's note on this Symposium and Sebald's growing fame from the Berlin Tagesspiegel.
• text+kritik special issue on Sebald out in April, 2003; information here.
• Akzente special issue on Sebald out. Information here.
• Mark McCulloh's book on Sebald from the University of South Carolina Press. Information here.
• Program of the University of London's Institute for Germanis Studies meeting on Sebald (Jan. 2003).
• Charles Simic reviews On the Natural History of Destruction in the Feb. 27, 2003, issue of the New York Review of Books. An excerpt of that review is here.
• David Levine's caricture of Sebald from the New York Review of Books (Dec 3, 1998) is here.
• Christopher Hitchens reviews Sebald's On the Natural History of Desctruction in the Atlantic Monthly here (Jan/Feb 2003).
• Peter Schneider on Sebald and Natural History . . . here from the New York Times (18 Jan 2003).
• Ruth Franklin's essay on Sebald's After Nature in the Sept. 23rd issue of The New Republic is here.
• Guardian review by John Kinsella of After Nature.
• Carol Bere's Oct. 6, 2002, review of After Nature in Washington Post Book World is here.
• Threepenny Review's "Symposium on W.G. Sebald" (notes on loss by Sontag, Wood, Clark, etc.).
• Andre Aciman's review of The Rings of Saturn in the Dec. 3, 1998 NYRB is here.
• Jo Catling's memorial essay on Sebald in New Books in German.
• New York Times obituary.
• Franz Loquai's Nachruf an Sebald.
• Alan Lockwood's in memoriam in The Brooklyn Rail.
• John Banville's Austerlitz review in The New Republic.
• Margo Jefferson's review essay in the NYTimes (March 18, 2001).
• Richard Eder reviews Vertigo in the NY Times (May 22, 2000) here.
• W.S. Di Piero's review of Vertigo in the NY TImes (June 11, 2000).
• Larry Wolff's review of The Emigrants in the NY Times (March 30, 1997) is here.
• Roberta Silman reviews The Rings of Saturn in the NY Times (July 26, 1998).
• First chapter of Austerlitz.
• 2001 Interview with Michael Silverblatt on the KCRW (Santa Monica) show "Bookworm" (Realaudio, 28 mins.) is here.
• Interview with Joe Cuomo in the New Yorker (2001).
• Maja Jaggi interview with Sebald in the Guardian (published posthumously).
• Guardian reviews of Austerlitz (Andy Beckett; C.S. Smith).
• Richard Eder review of Austerlitz.
• Sketch of Sebald by Arthur Lubow and a wonderful photograph by Jillian Edelstein in the NY Times from Dec 11, 2001, just before Sebald's death.

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