Calgary Interdisciplinary Symposium in German Studies:

The German Experience of World War I in Art and Culture

The "Great War" created a deep caesura in German and Austrian life and culture. The arts and their proponents were particularly affected by it, not least because many artists fought and lost their lives in the war. Artists and intellectuals reacted both at home and on the front lines, and their experiences were reflected in a plethora of literary texts, art works, musical compositions, and other forms of artistic expression. During this anniversary year of the outbreak of the war, we are planning a symposium that aims to explore artistic treatments of the German/Austrian experience of the war, and of Germans/Austrians in the war.

Possible areas of explorations may include, but are certainly not limited to:
- the writings of Ernst Jünger, Erich Maria Remarque, Georg Trakl, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Hermann Broch, and Bertolt Brecht
- the art of Franz Marc, Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Käthe Kollwitz
- the music and/or critical expressions of Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Franz Schreker, Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith, and Kurt Weill
- the artistic life (e.g. productions, exhibits, publications) in Germany and Austria during the war
- the depiction of the German/Austrian war experience in film, TV dramas, and comics
- the (philosophical) intersections between art and death

We invite proposals from all relevant disciplines of no more than 500 words by February 15, 2014 to both Maria Euchner (meuchnerucalgary.ca) and Stefan Höppner (shoppnerucalgary.ca). Papers should not exceed 20 minutes in length.