GERMAN WEEK 9. DAAD-Nachwuchssymposium im Fach Germanistik (25.-27.02.2013) Goethe Society of India International Conference: (27.02. – 01.03.2013) Comparing to what purpose? DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst German Academic Exchange Service Jawaharlal Nehru University Centre of German Studies New Delhi Federal Foreign Office
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GERMAN WEEK9. DAAD-Nachwuchssymposium
im Fach Germanistik
(25.-27.02.2013)
Goethe Society of India
International Conference:
(27.02. – 01.03.2013)
Comparing to what purpose?
DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austausch DienstGerman Academic Exchange Service
Jawaharlal Nehru University Centre of German Studies
New Delhi
Federal Foreign Office
9. D
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kMO, 25.02.2013 Committee Room
9.00 – 9.30 Uhr Anmeldung, Registrierung der Teilnehmer
9.30 – 9.45 Uhr Begrüßung
Prof. Dr. Rekha Rajan (JNU, Centre of German Studies)
Christiane Schlottmann (Direktorin, DAAD-Außenstelle New Delhi)
10.00 – 10.45 Uhr Eröffnungsvortrag
Prof. Dr. Anne Bohnenkamp (Universität Frankfurt am Main):
Wiederholte Spiegelungen. Goethe und das Übersetzen
10.45 – 11.15 Uhr TEA BREAK
11.15 – 13.00 Uhr Sektion I Moderation: Dr. Julia Afifi, JNU
Om Prakash (JNU, New Delhi): Literarische Übersetzung und
Übersetzungskritik
Anupam Siddharth (DU, New Delhi): Sub=Version der Sprache in Arno
Schmidts ›Gelehrtenrepublik‹
Sashirekha Srigiriraju (IITM Chennai): Erzählstimme und
Geschlechterrollen in den Werken von Angela Krauß
13.00 – 14.00 Uhr LUNCH BREAK
14.00 – 15.30 Uhr Sektion II Moderation: Prof. Shaswati Mazumdar, DU
Himanshu Chawla (DU, New Delhi): Genazinos Prinzip der Wahrnehmung
als konstitutives Merkmal seiner Erzählungen
Prachi Goswami (University of Rajastan): Zwischenmenschliche
Beziehungen in den Werken von Erich Kästner und Ruskin Bond
Philip Mathew Reuben (JNU, New Delhi): Stefan Heyms ›König David
Bericht‹ und ›Ahasver‹. Eine intertextuelle Analyse
15.30 – 16.00 Uhr TEA BREAK
16.00 – 17.30 Uhr Sektion III Moderation: Prof. Madhu Sahni, JNU
Gauri Brahme (Fergusson College, Pune): Der Einsatz des Internets im
DaF-Unterricht in Pune am Beispiel einiger Email-Projekte
Shivali Gore (Universität Pune): Deutschsprachige Spielfilme als
Unterrichtsmittel im Germanistikstudium in Indien
Nora Böckl (Bamberg): Wirklichkeit als Versuchsanordnung.
Postavantgardistische Schreib- und Vermarktungsstrategien in der österr.
Substantivkomposita im Deutschen und Hindi. Eine vergleichende Untersuchung
Das Ziel meiner Arbeit ist Substantivkomposita im Deutschen und Hindi zu erforschen. Es werden die
Wortbildungsprozesse sowie die Entsprechung der deutschen Komposita im Hindi untersucht. Die Arbeit ist in
einen theoretischen und einen praktischen Teil gegliedert. Im ersten Teil gebe ich einen Überblick über die
Wortbildungsprozesse im Hindi und im Deutschen. Im zweiten Teil untersuche ich anhand praktischer Beispiele,
welche Übersetzungsmöglichkeiten es im Hindi für deutsche Komposita gibt.
Raum für Notizen
Goethe Society of India
International Conference
Comparing to what purpose?
27 February – 1 March 2013
Comparativism stands at the centre of contemporary debates on the future of literary studies.
This is not surprising given the increasing migration of people, languages, ideas and texts across
national, continental and other borders, which has called into question the narrow confines and
dominant perspectives within which literature largely continues to be studied. But it has also
raised questions about comparative literature as it was practised since its formal inception as a
discipline in the nineteenth century. Though conceived under the sign of Goethe's idea of
Weltliteratur, the discipline remained permeated in its practice by the zeitgeist of nationalism,
colonialism and imperialism, even as it took as its point of departure the study of literature in
more than one language. The contemporary debates may therefore be seen to be about how to
restore Goethe's idea of “world literature” as the guiding principle of both the theory and
practice of comparativism. This has naturally led to debates about the concept of “world
literature” and about translation as the modus operandi through which literature gets
disseminated in languages other than the original. The debates therefore bring together the
triad of comparative literature, world literature and translation studies.
In India comparative literature emerged under and as a response to colonial rule. Tagore, when
invited to speak on the subject in 1907, deliberately titled his lecture Visva Sahitya. The tension
between “comparative literature” and “world literature” acquired an added dimension here,
that of a context defined by the social, economic and cultural consequences of colonial rule.
This tension continues to pose a challenge in current postcolonial and global times, riven as they
are by the heritage of the past and the crises of the present. How can we resolve this tension in a
manner that is consistent with the universalism of Weltliteratur or Visva Sahitya without
disregarding the contexts that overshadow and imperil literary communication?
The unsettling of hitherto existing frameworks of literary studies has also raised new questions
for comparative studies such as multilingualism in literature, oral and performative modes of
literary communication, the divide between the canonical and the popular, and more generally
the nature of the literary, its relationship to language, to other knowledge systems, to the
exercise of power and privilege, and its function in society. The conference will focus on the
theory and practice of comparativism in light of the questions outlined above. The languages of
the conference will be English and German.
MI, 27.02.2013 Committee Room
14.30 – 15.00 Uhr Welcome Address
Prof. Pawan Surana, President, Goethe Society of India
Opening remarks
Prof. Dr. Shaswati Mazumdar, DU
15.00 – 16.30 Uhr Session I Moderation: Prof. Dr. Shaswati Mazumdar, DU
Panel Discussion:
T.S. Satyanath (former Professor, Department of Modern Indian
Languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi)
Avadhesh Kumar Singh (Director, School of Translation Studies and
Training, IGNOU)
Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta (Professor, Department of Comparative
Literature, Jadavpur)
16.30 Uhr TEA
20.00 Uhr Buffet-Empfang an der Deutschen Botschaft
(Bitte bringen Sie ein gültiges Ausweisdokument mit Photo mit.
Photo identity card/photo pass/driving licence or any other such identification
documents are required at the entrance)
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?DO, 28.02.2013 Committee Room
9.45 – 11.15 Uhr Session II Moderation: Prof. Pramod Talgeri (President, InDaF)
Dorothee Kimmich (Universität Tübingen): Similarities. Notes on theory and practise of transculturality
Sadhana Naithani (JNU, New Delhi): The wild Philology of Jacob Grimm
11.15 – 11.30 Uhr TEA BREAK
11.30 – 13.00 Uhr Session III Moderation: Prof. B. Subramaniam, Mandi
Dirk Wiemann (Universität Potsdam): Spectres of comparison: Contemporary verse novels across and beyond the Anglosphere
Vaibhav Abnave (independent film maker): The Location of the Spiritual: Narcissus in the oeuvre of Mahesh Elkunchwar
13.00 – 14.00 Uhr LUNCH BREAK
14.00 – 15.30 Uhr Session IV Moderation: Prof. Dorothee Kimmich, Tübingen
B. Subramaniam (IIT, Mandi): The Colonial Experiment. “Faust” as Metapolitics
Jana Fedtke (Asian University for Women, Chittagong): Nagasaki, Partition, and 9/11 – Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Visva Sahitya’ as the Interconnected Universal in Kamila Shamsie’s “Burnt Shadows”
15.30 – 15.45 Uhr TEA BREAK
15.45 – 17.15 Uhr Session V Moderation: Prof. Dr. Rekha Rajan , JNU
Judhajit Sarkar (Jadavpur University, Kolkata): Doing Comparativism: some Reflections on the Works of two Indian Comparatists
Anushka Gokhale (Central University of Gujarat): “Immature Politics”. The Indo-German Cultural Exchange in the early 20th Century
17.30 – 18.30 Uhr Meeting of the Governing Body of the Goethe Society of India
9.45 – 11.15 Uhr Session VI (in German) Moderation: Prof. Rajendra Dengle, JNU
Mathew John K. (EFL University, Hyderabad): Ästhetik der Triebe und Moral der Ästhetik: Varanasi in Josef Winklers >Domra< und M.T.Vasudevan Nairs "Varaanasi”
Julia Afifi (JNU, New Delhi): Handelsgeschäfte & Revolte. Indien-Bezüge in Ludwig Tiecks Novelle ›Des Lebens Überfluß‹
11.15 – 11.30 Uhr TEA BREAK
11.30 – 13.00 Uhr Session VII (in German) Moderation: Dr. Carmen Ulrich, DU
Shanta Kumari (University of Kerala): Gedanken über Melancholie in G. Grass’ ›Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke‹ und in M. Mukundans “Haridwar”
Anne Bohnenkamp (Frankfurt am Main): Zeit & Geld in Goethe's >Faust<
13.00 – 14.00 Uhr LUNCH BREAK
14.00 – 15.30 Uhr Session VIII Moderation: Prof. Pawan Surana, Jaipur
Tejashri Chindhade (University of Pune): Bringing together early Marathi and German women’s feminist writings on a common platform: a contribution towards the third wave!
Soma Mukherjee (Bhasha-Bhavan, Visva Bharati): World Literature and Method of Comparative Literature: An Analysis
15.30 – 15.45 Uhr TEA BREAK
15.45 – 17.15 Uhr Session IX Moderation: Prof. Anil Bhatti, JNU
Pawan Surana (Jaipur): A Hindi Adaptation of Brecht’s Play “The Good Person of Szechwan”: semantic and cultural issues
A reading of Vishnu Khare’s Hindi Translation of Goethes Faust
17.30 – 18.30 Uhr General Body Meeting of the Goethe Society of India
19.30 Uhr Dinner at the Convention Centre, JNU
Abstracts of the participants of the Goethe Society-Conference
Dorothee Kimmich, Professor of Literature and Culture Studies, University of Tübingen and head of Tübinger
Poetik-Dozentur; PhD from the University of Freiburg, Germany
Similarities. Notes on theory and practice of transculturality
The aim of the paper is to examine the historical reach of the category of 'similarity' by revisiting its historical and
systematic implications. In this endeavor, one has to remember that “similarity” is not only a heuristic concept,
but that it also works as an argument and as a performative option on the level of cultural practices. It is necessary
to rehabilitate the notion of similarity, which has been discredited for two reasons: from a systematic
perspective, the notion can come under the suspicion of promoting ideas of assimilation as a forceful
homogenization of cultures, genders and religious convictions. Secondly, one has to regard the fact that the
notion of 'similarity' has itself been used for aims of cultural alterization: Thinking in similarities was confined to
the description of primitive levels of culture or pre-modern epochs and bordered off of the idea of a rationalist
modernity, that only accepts exact concepts as viable. Indeed, thinking in similarities contradicts the desire for
the precise establishment of borders and exact definition. The specific epistemological efficiency of the category
of 'similarity' could be found in the fact that it allows us to reflexively and systematically assess – in the light of
corresponding historical experiences – the dealing of social actors with vague circumstances, diffuse dynamics
and imprecise relations also and especially under (post)modern societal constraints. Literature is a field where
you can find different strategies of dealing with “similarities”. That will be shown by three different examples from
the 19th century.
Sadhana Naithani, Associate Professor at the Centre of German Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
PhD on German folksongs
The Wild Philology of Jacob Grimm
The most popular German book worldwide Kinder – und Hausmärchen by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published in
two volumes in 1812 and 1815 is currently completing its two centuries of unbroken journey across the world and
across languages. Through this book the Brothers unleashed not only a set of stories, but the concept of 'folk' and
'folktale' as cultural and political categories, and they captured the imagination of contemporary Europeans
living in different political contexts and reached other continents via colonial routes. Moreover, these concepts
have also deeply impacted philological and culture studies. Of the two Brothers, Jacob Grimm is also credited
with having coined the term Germanistik.
This paper explores several texts in different disciplines by the same author – Jacob Grimm. A comparative
reading shows how the term folk and folklore developed in Grimm's mind, deeply influencing his ideas on
language, law and literature. This pioneer of German philology called his own system 'a wild philology'. My
comparative study of his texts seeks to present the different ways in which Jacob Grimm uses the concepts of folk
and how these differences propose an inter-disciplinary comparitivism in philology/Germanistik.
Dirk Wiemann, Professor of English Literature at the University of Potsdam. He obtained his PhD from the
University of Oldenburg (Germany)
Spectres of comparison: Contemporary verse novels across and beyond the Anglosphere
In the wake of such spectacular works as Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate (1986) and Derek Walcott's Omeros
(1990), a veritable boom of large-format narratives in verse has set in all over the English-speaking world, but
especially in those regions that, according to theorists like Franco Moretti or Pascale Casanova, could be called
the (semi-)peripheries of the world literary system. Not only do these texts deliberately highlight their formal
eccentricity by deviating from the current standard of narrative prose; they also provoke and irritate the impulse
to compare them with high-canonical 'masterpieces' from Homer to Dante, Milton, Goethe and Pushkin.
In an attempt to delineate a general model of reading the poetics and politics of contemporary verse nov-els, my
presentation will propose that verse novels have become serious contestants of prose novels because of their
inherent tension between poetry's segmentivity (McHale) and narrative sequentiality. Thereby, I argue, verse
novels articulate a worldliness not in terms of abstract globality but concrete planetarity (Spivak), and hence a
limit to comparability as such. I will apply this model to the exemplary readings of two verse novels, one in English
(Autobiography of Red by Canadian writer Anne Carson), one in German (Der fliegende Berg by Austrian author
Christoph Ransmayer).
Vaibhav Abnave is presently a doctoral candidate at Center for International Politics, Organization and
Disarmament, School of International studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he has previously finished
M.A. (2007) and M.Phil. (2009) in International Politics . He is also a film maker and is presently finishing a feature
length film on the life and works of Mahesh Elkunchwar.
The Location of the Spiritual: Narcissus in the oeuvre of Mahesh Elkunchwar
Mahesh Elkunchwar, one of the eminent playwrights of post independence Indian theatre, has been criticized for
being self-indulgent (âtmarat), Narcissist and thus regressive by his contemporaries. This polemical criticism,
mirroring some of the contours of the Sartre-Camus debate, invariably implied a socially engaged writer
(particularly Marxist) to be morally superior and progressive. Interestingly, while responding to this polemics,
Elkunchwar defends the Narcissist as a positive figure through an existential reading of the Greek myth, while
attempting to provide a deeper, spiritual significance to self-indulgence (âtmamagnata) as a necessary
meditative state for soul-searching (âtmashodh). Elkunchwar's 'spiritual' recovery of Narcissus presents it as the
'subjective (âatmik) experience' (transcending the factuality of the Autobiographical) and the 'universal
(vaishwik) condition' (transcending the spatio-temporality of the Historical) at once, by postulating an organic
link between the two and thus attempts to construct a mystical, 'de-contextualised' discourse of spiritual quest.
Comparative literature can provide us with a method and a site to unpack this seemingly 'de-contextualised'
spiritual discourse by (re)locating it in its specific historical-cultural-political context(s). This paper shall attempt
to provide a critical, comparative reading of Elkunchwar's oeuvre (particularly focusing on his speeches,
interviews, appreciative literary criticism/aaswadsamiksha, lyrical essays/lalitlekhan) to examine how he
abstracts the figure of 'an abandoned, lonely, suffering, homeless artist' (seeking communion, Home and
Oneness) and the landscape of 'spiritual barrenness' (impossibility of communion, Home and Oneness) from the
modern western context and presents them as a subjective experience and a universal condition at once, to
construct a de-contextualised spiritual discourse. Through Elkunchwar this paper shall seek to explore the
broader question of the historical-material-cultural location of 'spiritual' discourse particularly in the
postcolonial context i.e. to engage with the 'spiritual' discourse without losing sight of the effects of power,
domination, imitation, difference, resistance, revival and exoticisation in constituting the 'spiritual' discourse on
both the ends.
B. Subramanian, Professor at the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at the IIT Mandi. He has taught German
Language and Literature at the Madras Christian College (1973-1984), at the IIT Madras (1985-2007) and at the
JNU (2008-2011).
The Colonial Experiment. Faust as Metapolitics
The renowned political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, in his unsparing critical view of modern liberal politics, has
expressed serious reservations about man's ability either to endure freedom from religion altogether or to enjoy
complete political freedom. In a dramatic sense, Goethe's Faust too is an exploration of this fundamental
middling predicament of man that becomes acutely manifest ever since the advent of modernity. The paper tries
to understand the metapolitic undercurrents of the Faustian undertaking to reclaim land from the sea to
establish a colony. It shows how the metapolitcal structure informs Goethe's bid to tame ruler and the ruled into a
true common weal even as it becomes acutely aware that the resources and constraints sought for the purpose
may result in a tragedy located in the future.
Jana Fedtke, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Literature, Asian University for Women Chittagong,
Bangladesh; M.A. in English/ American Studies, Universität Potsdam; PhD in Comparative Literature, University
of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Nagasaki, Partition, and 9/11 – Rabindranath Tagore's 'VisvaSahitya'
as the Interconnected Universal in Kamila Shamsie's “Burnt Shadows”
This paper proposes an interpretation of Kamila Shamsie's 2009 novel Burnt Shadows as embodying the
'interconnected universal' that is present in Rabindranath Tagore's understanding of 'visva sahitya' as world
literature. The novel uses events of historical significance such as the atomic bombs in Nagasaki/Japan in 1945,
Partition on the Subcontinent in 1947, and 9/11 in the US American context as backdrops to illustrate the
universal in human experiences and how they are interconnected in the contemporary global world. While
existing frameworks of world literature, comparative literature, and translation studies often focus on
differences in the cultural and linguistic contexts, Rabindranath's concept of 'visva sahitya' in the (post)colonial
context encompasses a broader understanding of world literature that goes beyond 'literature from different
parts of the world' to explore the interconnectedness of human experiences. Burnt Shadows represents such
experiences and their interconnectedness, spanning across the twentieth century and across three continents.
Examining the political and the personal as well as issues of power and privilege, the text asks fundamental
questions on human existence and attempts to answer them in its portrayal of a range of characters whose lives
are interconnected. This paper argues that Shamsie's global novel makes us rethink assumptions about
'Weltliteratur' as Goethe understood it to defend ideas of universalism even as they are threatened by political
events, religious ideologies, and personal tragedies.
Judajit Sarkar is currently a Masters' student at the Department of Comparative Literature in Jadavpur University,
Kolkata and graduated from the same institution in 2012.
“Doing” Comparativism: Some Reflections on the Works of Two Indian Comparatists
The disciplinary growth of Comparative Literature in India has been a slow but consistent one. The intention of
the present paper would be to turn a critical eye at the works produced by two Indian scholars, Manabendra
Bandopadhyay and Sisir Kumar Das, both of whom have either been a student of Comparative Literature or have
been involved with this discipline pedagogically.
Comparability and more importantly the plausibility of a “comparative approach” had been an overarching
concern for the practitioners of this discipline in its formative years, so much so that Harry Levin had to
(in)famously invite his colleagues in his Grounds of Comparison to spend some quality time home “doing”
Comparativism rather than pondering over theoretically over the viability of their ostensibly loosely-knit
disciplinary formation. The history of Comparative Literature in the United States is a testimony to the fact that
Levin's invitation was paid almost no heed to as in the subsequent years Comparative Literature was gradually
transformed into a veritable battlefield of contesting theories and stress began to be put, as is expected in such a
situation, more on the method than the matter.
In India however the trajectory following Comparativism was of a very different nature given that not “critical
premises” but “literary practices” were what the Indian Comparatist had to show his fidelity to in order to survive
in the pluricultural/plurilingual atmosphere of the country. And though somewhat transfixed in the Nehruvian
idealism in the initial phases, especially in its attempts to study Indian literature(s) in mutual-conjunction,
Comparative Literature in India, this paper would contend, has never actually been a site for the practice of
literary “universalism” as preached by Goethe and reiterated through his distinctive poetically philosophical
idiom by Rabindranath. The modest aim of the present paper then would be to diagnose the reflections and
refractions of such a “lived reality” in the works of the two aforementioned doyens in the field of Comparative
Literature in India in order to build a more comprehensive understanding of this literary discipline in its Indian
avatar.
Anushka Gokhale, Assistant Professor at the Centre for German Studies, Central University of Gujarat; M.A.in
German from Pune University; PhD from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg
th“Immature Politics” The Indo-German Cultural Exchange in the early 20 Century
Cross-cultural dialogue is one of the major concerns of Comparative Literary Studies. My paper deals with the
Indo-German cultural exchange in the first quarter of the 20th century. I am particularly interested in how the
German-speaking people approached India through seemingly ‚non-political', i.e. spiritual, aesthetic channels, thsuch as the practice of yoga. Yoga was being practised for the first time around the turn of the 19 century. India,
the object of knowledge, was now sought for self-realization. This very self-realization that India seemed to offer
was increasingly becoming difficult in Europe as a result of the primacy of science over religion. The ‚life reform
movement' in Germany and Switzerland emerged as a result of the shift to a scientific world-view. Indian forms of
spiritual engagement were instrumentalized for a rejuvenation of the European Self degenerating under the
burden of imperialism and the civilizing mission. This cross-cultural apparently apolitical exchange with India was
happening while more 'political' imperial relations were being negotiated. Further, the engagement with the
periphery of the empire was also reshaping the life at the centre. While Indians themselves were turning to the
"West" to rearrange their soci-ial structures through the prism of revival and reform, their European counterparts
were casting India in the role of 'spiritual savior', the role which Indians were internalizing while restructuring
their 'pre-modern selves'.This process of mutual rearrangement of selves produced friendships across colonial
boundaries, such as the one between Swami Vivekananda and Paul Deussen. Leela Gandhi offers valuable
insights into this kind of cross-cultural relationships during the colonial period, to be precise, in the late-
nineteenth-century Britain and Europe. She argues that such affiliations provided a channel for an 'immature
politics' as a subversive force against imperialism. My paper would deal with the Indo-German context, as to how
both define their roles in this cross-cultural dialogue vis- à-vis their own society as well as the other.
Mathew John K., Assistant Professor at School of Germanic Studies, EFL University, Hyderabad. He obtained his
PhD from the University of Kerala.
Ästhetik der Triebe und Moral der Ästhetik:
Varanasi in Josef Winklers ›Domra‹ und M.T. Vasudevan Nairs„ Varaanasi“
Die Romane Domra (dt.) und Varaanasi (Malayalam u. Hindi, Benares, engl.) mit dem Pilgerort Varanasi als
Kulisse entstanden in zwei verschiedenen Ländern und Kulturen. Die literarische Thematisierung Varanasis
erfolgt aus unterschiedlichen kulturellen Kontexten heraus. Varanasi, eine Zwischenstation der Figur Sudhakaran
auf seinem Lebensweg wird zum Höhepunkt des Romans Varanaasi und zum Sühneort seiner Sünden. In Domra
hat Winkler den Ort zur Erlösung von seiner Besessenheit mit Todesgedanken gefunden, er fungiert
dementsprechend als Szenerie für seinen Todes- und Lebenstrieb. Die starke Affinität des Un- und
Unterbewussten in beiden Werken zu mythisch verankerten Werten zeigt sich im Ungesagten beider Romane,
deren Entschlüsselung für den Leser eine Herausforderung darstellt. Vom Blickwinkel der fremden Kultur die
eigene zu betrachten, erlaubt es, die fremde Ästhetik und fremde Moral bei der Verschmelzung von gleichen
Inhalten und verschiedenen Formen zu untersuchen.
Julia Afifi, derzeit DAAD-Lektorin am Centre of German Studies der JNU. Studium der Philosophie, Germanistik,
Theaterwissenschaften und Theaterregie in Frankfurt am Main und Paris. Promotion am Graduiertenkolleg
Klassizismus und Romantik an der Universität Gießen
Handelsgeschäfte & Revolte. Indien-Bezüge in Ludwig Tiecks Novelle ›Des Lebens Überfluß‹
Zum einen werden die Indien-Bezüge und ihre narrative Funktion in Ludwig Tiecks Novelle ›Des Lebens Überfluß‹
analysiert, zum andern ein komparatistischer Vergleich mit dem zeitgenössischen Indien-Diskurs in der dt.
Literatur & Philosophie (Gebrüder Schlegel, Goethe, Hegel) durchgeführt. Dabei werden Tiecks auffallende
Differenzen deutlich und sein politisch weitsichtiges prognostisches Gespür.
Santha Kumari, Professor of German, University of Kerala; MA German Language and Literature, University of
Kerala; PhD University of Kerala
Gedanken über Melancholie
in Günter Grass' ›Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke‹ und in M. Mukundans “Haridwar“
A comparative analysis serves to observe an object from the perspective of two or more cultures. This manner of
viewing should help to ascertain not only common features/differences, but also the possible development of
positive/negative influences. Thus, a comparative analysis helps to widen the horizon of understanding with
regard to a specific object of research; thereby, it also helps to overcome prejudices and strengthen the
understanding among nations/peoples. In this sense, it is relevant to analyse Günter Grass' From the Dairy of a
Snail and M. Mukundan's Haridwar with respect to the physical/mental illness melancholy. Both the novels
appeared in the same year 1972, when the educated well-to-do youth everywhere in the world were fascinated
and influenced by the so called "Hippy-Wave". Grass sees, among other things, a close association between the
melancholy among youth in the consumer society of the time in the FRG and their need to succeed, their
impatience and the resultant sexual problems. For the main character Ramesh, in the Malayalam novel
Haridwar, the tempo of life in his place of work, Delhi, influenced by the West, turns out to be an indispensable
means of escapism. Ramesh is a successful young man in society, who leads a life of pleasure in Delhi. But he
suffers acute melancholy and is a drug addict and is plagued with a death wish. He leads a free sex life, which gives
him only "thrills" and no happiness. As opposed to Grass, who looks for a practical socio-political solution for
melancholy, Mukundan offers a metaphysical solution; for Mukundan, man is not only a psycho-physical, but also
a spiritual being, who longs for not only material, but also spiritual fulfillment.
Anne Bohnenkamp, Professorin an der Universität Frankfurt am Main und Direktorin des Freien Deutschen
Hochstifts/Frankfurter Goethemuseums in Frankfurt am Main. Leitung des DFG-Langzeitprojekts Historisch-
kritische Ausgabe der Werke und Briefe Clemens Brentanos und des DFG-Projekts Historisch-kritische Hybrid-
Ausgabe von Goethes ›Faust‹
Zeit & Geld in Goethes ›Faust‹
Ausgehend von der Aktualität der Goetheschen Kritik der von Beschleunigung und Finanzkrisen geprägten
Gegenwart im frühen 19. Jahrhundert erörtert der Vortrag die Rolle der Kategorien 'Zeit' und 'Geld' in Goethes
dramatischem Hauptwerk. Im Fokus steht dabei eine Betrachtung der Papiergeldszene im 2. Teil des Dramas und
eine Analyse der berühmten Wette zwischen Faust und Mephistopheles.
Tejashri Chindhade, visiting faculty at Ranade Institute, Pune University; M.A. in German from JNU and PhD in
German from the Pennsylvania State University, USA
Bringing together early Marathi and German women's feminist writings
on a common platform: a contribution towards the third wave!
Global feminisms set themselves the task of answering questions as to who is a feminist and how feminists the
world over can identify common women's problems and collectively fight for women's Rights. Indian feminists
have been fighting against the stereotypical representations of Indian women as they are represented in
westcentric practices and discourses since post-colonial times. “Often Indian women get ascribed with adjectives
such as average, dutiful, tradition-bound, ignorant, poor, victimized, etc., which thus affects their self-esteem.”
(Mohanty) International educational and legal policies are formulated based on these stereotypes. (Mohanty) At
the same time Indian/Western feminism ignores the different strands of feminist thought within their own
culture. The differences 'within' and 'between' them need to be acknowledged and alliances between East West
feminists need to be formed. This is possible through a comparative endeavor. In this regard my study attempts to
compare/ juxtapose four Marathi feminist writings with German feminist writings, from the colonial period
namely: Savitribai Phule with Adelheid Popp, Pandita Ramabai with Louise Otto Peters, Tarabai Shinde with
Hedwig Dohm, and lastly but not the least, Malatibai Bedekar with Irmgard Keun and shows the similarities and
differences in their feminist writings. Through the similarities we see that Indian feminists show endeavors
similar to Western feminists, and can come together on a common platform, to address a common set of
problems, thus dismantling the stereotypes, while the differences show the need to acknowledge the specificity
of Indian feminism or likewise German feminism. This paper thus foregrounds the significance of placing Indian
feminist literature on an equal platform with Western feminist writing and thus highlights the capacity of Indian
feminist writing to contribute towards the Third Wave in feminism.
Soma Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature in Department of English and Other Modern
European Languages at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan; M.A. and PhD in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur
University
“World Literature and Method of Comparative Literature: An Analysis”
From the time of its inception in the West, Comparative Literature goes through many debates but today
Comparative Literature is recognised as a discipline which talks about a method to study literature. For an
understanding of “Comparative Literature” a few ideas and definitions such as 'General literature', 'National
Literature', 'World Literature' are crucial. But if we look at all these ideas then we notice that all of them went
through certain paradigmatic shifts. Among these ideas the most talked about term is 'World Literature' which
was made famous for its usage by Goethe. But apart from Goethe's terminology the term has attained many
different meanings across time and places. In one of the definitions the term 'World Literature' has been used to
suggest 'great books'. In another definition 'World Literature' means a history of literature where various national
literatures, movements and periods were described and analysed. In both these instances there were certain
questions which can be raised and answered through the methodology of Comparative Literature. Goethe had
used the term in a more universal sense where he looked beyond Western literary tradition and in his idea we find
certain examples of literary parallels and examples of literary parallels and exchanges. Goethe's East-West Divan
is product of his belief of 'World Literature'.
In contemporary multilingual India, the comparative literary method is one viable option to study literature
where 'literature is one but written in many languages'. In this context Goethe's idea of 'World Literature' and
Rabindranath Thakur's idea of 'Viswa-Sahitya' are two significant notions but both these ideas are product of two
different time and literary milieu. In the post-globalised world the vital objective is to look at all these ideas of
literary exchanges and their relevance to present literary studies. In this paper my purpose is to look at various
ideas about 'World Literature' and how these different ideas made a significant contribution in the definition and
methodology of Comparative Literature.
Pawan Surana, former Professor of German, University of Rajastan, PhD from Ruhr University Bochum
A Hindi Adaptation of Brecht's Play The Good Person of Szechwan: semantic and cultural issues
At the behest of the theatre activist M.K.Raina, Indian dramatist Ranveer Singh adapted Brecht's play The Good
Person of Szechwan (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan) in Hindi in 1997. The title of the Hindi play
“MukhontokeeJindagi” (Life of Masks) conveys the tenor of the play. This rather free Hindi adaptation of the
German play with its relocation in India, (originally situated in China by Brecht) makes one rethink and raise a few
questions: namely, what does an adaptation do to the original play? What does an adaptation aim to do? How
does an adaptation differ from a literary translation? Does an adaptation simply protect the literary aesthetics of
the original or does it surpass the original and conveys a surplus semantic and cultural value to the spectators?
How does an adaptation, which is done keeping in mind only the public of the target country, compromise the
original? Here, I would only comment on specific inferences gathered from a close reading of the above
mentioned texts for there seem to be perhaps no ultimate solutions.
Raum für Notizen
GERMAN WEEK
Comparing to what purpose?
9. DAAD-Nachwuchssymposium im Fach Germanistik (25.-27.02.2013)
Goethe Society of India International Conference (27.02. – 01.03.2013)
Kontakt
Centre of German Studies
School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies