CFP: Mapping Channels between Ganges and Rhine:
                 German – Indian Cross-Cultural Relations
                 University of Toronto, Canada
                 May 24 – 26, 2006

Keynote Speakers: Anil Bhatti, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
                   Kamakshi Murti, Middlebury College

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts – July 31, 2005

Cross-cultural relations between the Indian subcontinent and the
German-speaking countries have a long, diverse history and have
manifested themselves in literature, linguistics, the performing arts,
religion, philosophy, history, and many other fields. They have also
long been regarded as expressions of a special relationship: ever since
the Middle Ages, "India" – not just as a geographical location, but also
a philosophical, spiritual concept – has held a unique position in the
German imagination. On the flipside, there is considerable Indian
interest in German culture, including wide recognition of several German
authors, philosophers, and Indologists. Concepts and names that mark
some of the channels of exchange and communication between the two
cultures include Balthasar Sprenger, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, Kalidasa's
"Sakuntala", Herder, the Schlegel brothers, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Heine,
Nietzsche, "Moksha" Müller, Hermann Hesse, Rabindranath Tagore, the
ideology of the "Aryan," Subhash Chandra Bose and his affiliation with
Hitler, Gandhi, Annemarie Schimmel, Günter Grass, and many others. In
recent years, Orientalist Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Intercultural
German Studies, and Transnational Studies have given new impetus and
directions to the interest in Indo-German relations. The aim of this
conference is to achieve an overview over the current state and trends
of research in this field.

Possible avenues of investigation include, but are not limited to:

- Actual interactions and mutual perceptions between the two regions
and peoples
- Intellectual and fictional encounters
- Political influences in different historical periods
- Interdisciplinary approaches to geographical border crossings
- The impact of "Oriental Renaissance" and "Wilhelminian Orientalism"
(Alexander Honold) in cultural relations
- Travel accounts from the Early Modern period to the 21st century
- The changing perception of the "exotic"
- Exotic and adventure textual and filmic narratives
- Representation of past and current colonial fantasies
- Transnational authors: Anant Kumar, R. Singh, among others

The organizers plan to publish the conference proceedings and hope that
this conference will launch a future Indian-German research network. In
order to foster lively discussion at this meeting, participants will be
asked to submit their papers by April 15, 2006 so that they may be
distributed to other presenters. Conference presentations should be
approximately 15 minutes and offer a summary of the paper's contents
and, if applicable, additional comments about how the paper relates to
current research in progress.

Graduate students are encouraged to submit an abstract. Some travel
assistance will be available to conference presenters. The conference
will take place immediately prior to the annual Congress of the Canadian
Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, to be held at York
University, Toronto.

Please send your abstracts before July 31, 2005 by email or surface mail
to:

Sukanya Kulkarni
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON M5S 1J4
Canada
sukanya.kulkarni_at_utoronto.ca
        
and

Joerg Esleben
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
University of Ottawa
70 Laurier Ave East
Ottawa, ON K1S 4S3
Canada
jesleben_at_uottawa.ca

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Received on Thu Apr 14 2005 - 17:25:30 EDT