Cornucopia

Jacques Callot, Les deux Pantalons, 1616,
British Museum, London (source : WGA)

The field of Romance philology allows for various encounters of different languages, literatures and cultures, which are interrelated with complex social, political and cultural developments. The ob- jects of investigation in Romance studies are constantly changing, just like the professional disci- plines themselves, subject to a variety of evolutions.

The conference entitled Forum Junge Romanistik (FJR, Forum For Young Researchers in Romance Studies) offers an interdisciplinary platform directed to young researchers and aims to explore cur- rent and historical processes of transformation from a variety of interdisciplinary viewpoints in or- der to highlight the functioning and implications of such developments, and to discuss our self- conception of being young researchers in Romance Sciences.

We look forward to welcoming you in Göttingen with contributions from Romance Literary Stud- ies, Linguistic, Didactics and Cultural Studies as well as neighboring disciplines which share inter- faces with Romance Studies like History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature Studies, and Gen- der Studies.

In various interdisciplinary panels we will present current research results of doctoral students and international guests, focusing upon Transformations and their characterizing aspects of Change, Movement and Velocity. The following panel suggestions may orient you towards potential contri- bution topics:

•   History of professional disciplines and theories: paradigmata, upheavals, transformations
•   Models, theories and concepts of processes of transformations
•   Masked Transformations and the illusion of continuity
•   Language politics: regulation, forced fluxes, extern controls
•   Failed transformations
•   Revolutions, reforms and their narrativization
•   Transformation through reception
•   Transmediality – Intermediality – Adaption
•   Canonizations: Language, Literature, Knowledge
•   Transformation of/by Knowledge, Expertise and Competence
•   Esthetic Transformations: Changing Concepts of Body and Beauty
•   Myths, Transformation Narratives and Identities
•   Strategies of describing movement and standstills
•   Speed: Acceleration, Deceleration, Stagnation

  Humboldtallee 19 Tel. +49 551 39-20015 (Aenne Gottschalk) E-Mail: fjr2017@uni-goettingen.de 37073 Göttingen Fax +49 551 39-5667 Web: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/541579.html

•   Migration and Generations
•   Language Contact and Multilingualism as Catalysts for Transformations

  Discussing current developments, the symposium aims at exploring not only the social, cultural and scientific relevance of research but also wants to offer perspectives and impulses for further work.

  Linguistics

  Change and velocity are constituents of most internal processes of speech and language. They ap- pear in different forms in many areas of the linguistic subdisciplines: in historical change and di- asystematic variation of language, and in transformations on morphological, syntactical and other system-linguistical levels.

  The goal of the conference is to unite constructive and creative perspectives on phenomena of change in synchronic and diachronic linguistics in order to provide room for, and discussion of, innovative ideas and theories.

  Possible linguistic contributions in all subdisciplines could include:

1. a)  Investigations of the different grammar theories or grammaticalization processes, as well as work on structural phenomena in interfaces (e.g. phonology syntax, semantics syntax)
2. b)  Work in the area of language geography, linguistic variety, typology and etymology
3. c)  Studies in the interface areas of linguistics with other disciplines, like language philosophy, language policy, socio-linguistics and work on multilingualism (e.g.. migration and lan-

   guage contact).

Literary Studies

The transforming potential of literature can be viewed from different perspectives. Text production and its reception just as well as forms of representation and the objects chosen to be represented make reference to sociocultural and economic changes. These can be analyzed in a synchronic as well as a diachronic perspective (e.g. as in discursively constructed boundaries of literary periods). Genre-specific boundaries and conditions for literary representation of change and its dynamics (e.g. narratological acceleration and deceleration; metamorphosis of characters and text elements) are to be renegotiated in view of their transforming potencies. Meta-literary, esthetic and poetologi- cal interrogations about the representability of cyclic movement and proceeding developments in texts can be explored in their specific contexts.

Suggestions for literary contributions might include the following:

1. a)  References to reform processes and revolutions (e.g. in the literature of enlightenment or in literary movements like modernism) as well as changes in current literary production, recep- tion and mediation in the period of digitalization. To what extent is literature capable of shaping social and literary processes of transformation and change?
2. b)  Transformation of contents and form as part of genre specific, medial and diachronic text adaptions
3. c)  Link to cultural studies (e.g. research in mythology): narrative patterns, circularity, change and metamorphosis, transformation of mythological subject matters

Humboldtallee 19 Tel. +49 551 39-20015 (Aenne Gottschalk) E-Mail: fjr2017@uni-goettingen.de 37073 Göttingen Fax +49 551 39-5667 Web: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/541579.html

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Cultural Studies

Transformation lies in the center of interest of cultural studies research. It regards the overshaping of and change in culture, and examines the perception of processes of change and its oppressive effects.

Suggestions for contributions in cultural studies may be the following:

1. a)  The circulation, representation and storage of knowledge and its impact on the alteration and transformation of the body of knowledge
2. b)  Processesofchangeinmaterialculture,culturalpractices,religiouscontentsthroughcultur- al transfer and exchange between diverse cultural and social spaces (e.g. between Europe and the extra-European world, between scholarly and folkloric cultures)
3. c)  Veiled/concealed transformations of rites, myths and symbols through processes of na- tionbuildung in Romance countries as well as phenomena of “inventing tradition”

d) Revolutions as a cultural paradigm of transforming action: its stylization and narratological fixation as decisive moments of change in cultural memory

Didactics

Didactic research in language teaching discusses transformations in consequence of PISA, CERF (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) or Learning Standards, amongst oth- ers. Theoretical and methodological developments represent a focus of investigation as well. Changing concepts of culture and the actors are an axis for the impartation of intercultural competence, especially in view of multilingualism whose importance grows with the increasing migration movements. As a consequence, the significance of mediation rises.

Ideas for contributions in didactics might include:

1. a)  Processes of education in language teaching, language acquisition and/ or cultural experi- ences of foreigners
2. b)  Towhatextentcanatextormedialproductexperiencetransformationsinviewofitsdidac- tization? Which role does the concept of “authenticity” play from the learner’s and teacher’s point of view?
3. c)  Do complex learning exercises/ tasks transform language teaching or are they just a meth- odological ‘flash in the pan’?

General Information

The FJR will take place from March 15-17, 2017 in Göttingen. Conference languages are German, English, and Romance languages. Send proposals for contributions (ca. 300 words) and a brief vita by September 15, 2016 to: fjr2017@uni-goettingen.de.

Contributions will be selected by mid-November 2016. At the moment we endeavor to offer finan- cial support to the speakers for travelling and overnight stay expenses. We may ask for a contribu- tion towards costs of around 30 Euros.

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