Postgraduate Forum
Liminality and the Short Story
University of Würzburg, Germany
March 7-10, 2013
We are pleased to announce our postgraduate forum (PGF) which will take place as part of the international conference “Liminality and the Short Story” to be held at the University of Würzburg from March 7-10, 2013.
The conference “Liminality and the Short Story” will address the generic liminality of the short story as well as the moral transgressions, heterotopic orders and forms of self-reflection negotiated within its confines. It will feature papers on the liminality of the short story as well as on liminality in the short story.
The PGF offers young scholars (doctoral candidates and recent post-docs) the opportunity to present and discuss their work (preferably their graduate thesis) on liminality and the short story. It is primarily devoted to discussions of the American short story but also invites comparative and non-American perspectives. Invited speakers are required to send a two-page summary of their 20 min-talk, which will then be forwarded to all participants of the workshop and form the basis of our discussion.
Paper topics can include, but are not limited to:
- the short story as a liminal genre
- short story cycles and collections of short stories
- themes related to liminality or describing liminal conditions, for example conflicts between competing ethical norms, initiation, multiple identities, third sex and third gender, transgression, third spaces, border crossings, cultural mobility, cultural in- and exclusion, etc.
We are happy to announce the speakers of the PGF:
- Evelyn Mayer (Saarland University, Saarbrücken and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany): "Indigenous Interstitial Spaces: Liminality in Thomas King's Short Story 'Borders'"
- Florian Zappe (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany): "In the Generic Interzone: On the Liminal Character of William S. Burroughs' 'Routines'"
- Katherine Orr (University of Chichester, UK): "Liminality, Metamorphic Experience and the Short Story Form"
The full conference program and further information can be found at:
Organizers
Juliane Braun, M. A., Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Würzburg, Germany
Annabella Fick, M. A., Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Würzburg, Germany
Stefan Hippler, M. A., Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Würzburg, Germany
Sabrina Hüttner, M. A., Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Würzburg, Germany
