ÌÇÐÄTV

International Conference

The Longing for Time:

Ästhetische Eigenzeit in Contemporary Film, Literature and Art

Konstanz, 15 – 17 May 2014

Organisers: Anne Fuchs (University of ÌÇÐÄTV) & Aleida Assmann (Konstanz University)

13.00‐14.00: Conference Registration and Coffee

14.00‐15.10: Aleida Assmann & Anne Fuchs: Opening

Session 1 (Chair: Aleida Assmann)

14.10‐14.50: Fritz Reheis (University of Bamberg):

“Breite oder punktförmige Gegenwart? Über Zeitvorstellungen bei Gumbrecht und Rosa”

14.50‐15.30: Sarah Colvin (University of Cambridge):

“Stop, Look, and Listen? Art, Attentiveness, and Stretchy Time”

15.30‐15.50: Coffee break

(Chair: Anne Fuchs)

15.50‐16.30: Christer Petersen (University of Cottbus):

“Digitale Beschleunigung”

16.30‐17.10: Erica Carter, Ricarda Vidal (King’s College London) and Jenny

Chamarette (Queen Mary, London):

“Translation, Ekphrasis, Poiesis: Comments on Translation Games and Intermedial Time”

17.10‐17.50: Aleida Assmann (University of Konstanz):

“Aus der Zeit gefallen – Gedanken zu Elfriede Jelineks Winterreise”

Session 2 (Chair: Dirk Göttsche)

9.30‐10.10: James Hodkinson (University of ÌÇÐÄTV):

“Slowing  the  Present:  Brian  Eno's  Sound  Installations  for  Art Galleries and Other Spaces”

10.10‐10.50: Elizabeth Boa (University of Nottingham):

“Musical and Poetic: Mirroring of Space/Time: Eliott Carter, Benjamin Black and Martin Crimp, Barbara Köhler”

10.50‐11.10: Coffee break

11.10‐11.50: Andrew Webber (University of Cambridge):

“Lifetimes: Digitality and Ontology in the Film Work of Christian Petzold”

11.50‐12.30:  J. J. Long (University of Durham):

“Taking Time: Photographers of Slowness”

Session 3 (Chair: Jonathan Long)

14.00‐14.40: Bernd Stiegler (University of Konstanz):

“Ein neuer Mensch, ein neues Sehen, eine neue Zeit. Der Nullpunkt der Geschichte in den Avantgarden”

14.40‐15.20: Beate Ochsner (University of Konstanz):

“'Viewser' oder 'internaute'? Zur Synchronisierung von Zuschauer- und Produktionszeit(en) in interaktiven Webdokumentationen“

15.20‐15.50: Coffee break

15.50‐16.30: Mary Cosgrove (University of Edinburgh):

“The Time of Sloth in Contemporary Cultural Representations”

16.30-17.10: Anne Fuchs (University of ÌÇÐÄTV):

“The Longing for Transcendence in Ulrich Seidl's Paradies: Glaube and Arnold Stadler's Salvatore”

17.30-18.30: Snacks Reception at the Bischofsvilla (Conference delegates only)

Session 4 (Chair: Helmut Schmitz)

9.30-10.10: Alexandra Pontzen (Universität Essen/Duisburg):

“Gedehntes Leid: Die peinigende Epiphanie in der deutschsprachige Gegenwartsliteratur”

10.10-10.50: Karen Leeder (University of Oxford):

 “Die Zeit ist aus den Fugen: The Berlin Republic – A Time for Spectres”

10.50‐11.10: Coffee break

11.10-11.50: Silvia Mergenthal (University of Konstanz):

“Roads (Not) Taken: Time and Alternate History in Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life”

12.00‐12. 40: Silke Horstkotte (University of Leipzig):

“Die Zeit, die endet und das Ende der Zeit: Eschatologische Poetik und gegenwärtige Kultur”

On 16^th May 2014, the University of ÌÇÐÄTV hosted the international conference “Geographies of Man. Environmental Influence from Antiquity to the Enlightenment”. “Geographies of Man” brought together researchers from all over Europe and the United States for a day of fruitful interdisciplinary conversation (for the full programme see ).

The conference was opened by Dr Vladimir Jankovic, senior lecturer at the University of Manchester and current President of the International Commission for the History of Meteorology, whose paper “On Climate Fetishism” shed light on the ideological assumptions and social implications of modern climatic discourse. Dr Jankovic’s keynote address was followed by four panels which explored different moments and topics in the history of environmental ideas, from classical Greece to eighteenth-century France. The first panel, “Ancient Environments: From the Divine to the Human”, traced the emergence of ecological and geographical discourse in classical Greece (Ellis) and imperial Rome (Kemp), also highlighting connections between enviromentalistic ideas and the conceptualisation of economic and military behaviour in Antiquity (Bonnier). In the afternoon, attention shifted to the late medieval and early modern periods, with a series of three panels on “Policing the Environment”, “Thinking Global”, and “Religion and Natural Philosophy”. The topics discussed were extremely varied: from Dutch public health schemes (Weeda), to Jesuit cartography in China (Chanis); from food and climate in Italian Renaissance philosophy (Muratori), to divine providence in the seventeenth-century English chorological literature (Beck); from notions of land use in the Diggers movement (Dodsworth), to maritime research in the Royal Society (Hellawell); from the legal implications of sudden environmental change (Johnson) to the role played by Montesquieu in constructing a concept of race (Cadelo-Buitrago). Overall, the conference made a significant step forward in rooting environmental ideas in their original social and historical contexts. It also richly documented the alliance between environmental discourse and various disciplinary fields (philosophy, science, economy, natural history, theology, medicine, cartography, etc.) across time and space.

 “Geographies of Man” was made possible by generous funding from the Humanities Research Centre, the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, the departments of Italian, History, and Classics, and the Royal Historical Society. The organisers (Sara Miglietti, Renaissance; John Morgan, History; Rebecca Taylor, Classics) would also like to acknowledge the valuable logistic support received from Ms Sue Dibben (HRC) and Ms Jayne Brown (Renaissance). A related event (“Ruling Climate. The Theory and Practice of Environmental Governmentality, 1500-1800”) will take place on the 16^th of May, 2015. For more information, see

Sara Miglietti

Friday 16th May 2014 - interdisciplinary conference sponsored by Humanities Research Centre, organised by Sara Miglietti (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance), John Morgan (History), Rebecca Taylor (Classics and Ancient History).

Ramphal Building R03/04. Please see our website for our programme: