University of Connecticut |
SOPHIE MEREAU verDICHTET: Werk–Zeit–RaumSOPHIE MEREAU CONNECTED: Works–Time–Space
International and Interdisciplinary Conference To mark the 200th anniversary of the death of German Romantic writer Sophie Mereau-Brentano (1770-1806), an international and interdisciplinary conference "SOPHIE MEREAU verDICHTET: Werk–Zeit–Raum” (SOPHIE MEREAU CONNECTED: Works–Time–Space) will be held from June 22-24, 2006 at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany. The conference is a transatlantic collaboration between the "Gender Relations and Enlightenment“ program of Germany’s Special Research Area 482 "The Event of Weimar-Jena: Culture around 1800“ and Katharina von Hammerstein from the University of Connecticut, USA. This conference is the first to focus explicitly on Sophie Mereau and the discursive environment around 1800 in which she wrote. It aims at investigating the extensive and lively interrelations between Sophie Mereau and the intellectual community of writers, philosophers, theologians, scientists, musicians, and politicians then concentrated in and around Weimar and Jena. With its focus on the complexities of communication and mutual inspiration, on the richness of innovative cultural practices, and on an array of multi-faceted disciplinary approaches to discourses of the time, the conference promises to provide new perspectives on Sophie Mereau’s works and life as well as on the intellectual and creative synergy exploding in Weimar and Jena around 1800. Noted scholars from Germany, the US, Kenya, Australia, and the UK will join together to advance current research on Sophie Mereau and her discursive context and discuss innovative theoretical approaches to her works and life, broadening the scope to include interdisciplinary perspectives. A larger goal of the conference is to generate novel impulses to research on Sophie Mereau, German literature, and gender history overall. |