International Colloquium “In Dialogue with the Arts” June 6-7, 2019

Table of contents

1. 1. International Colloquium in Honor of Margarete Zimmermann
      1. Program
         1. Thursday, June 6, 2019
         2. Friday, June 7, 2019
         3. Reading and conversation with Cécile Wajsbrot

International Colloquium in Honor of Margarete Zimmermann

At the heart of Cécile Wajsbrot’s latest novel, *Destruction* (Paris 2019) is a woman who had devoted her life to reading and writing but who, in her country’s newly established dictatorship, is now permitted by a mysterious client to use only an audio blog as a means of artistic expression. Through the contrasting interplay of various voices, this visionary dystopia explores society’s frightening transformation into an authoritarian regime.

With *Destruction*, Cécile Wajsbrot not only offers a diagnosis of contemporary societies but also concludes her five-novel cycle *Haute Mer*, which explores the emergence of various art forms, their reception, and their functions. Marking the conclusion of this pentalogy, the conference examined the latest developments in the author’s work, taking up the “dialogue of the arts”—explicitly articulated in “Haute Mer”—as its guiding theme.

In this way, novels written prior to the cycle, as well as more recent texts that are not themselves part of the pentalogy—such as the *Autobiographie allemande*, which is characterized by a distinctly dialogic nature—also became the subject of (re)reading. It became clear once again that Cécile Wajsbrots’ literary work evolves into a “single book” not only because of its (musical) harmony and coherence, but also because of its dense web of intertextual and intermedial references. Due to their innovative aesthetic form, all these texts take the risk of embarking on a “journey” to unknown continents of literature.

The International Colloquium took place on a special day: in honor of and on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the Berlin-based Romanist Margarete Zimmermann, whose contributions to the field of contemporary French literature it seeks to recognize and whose scholarly oeuvre it aims to continue. With her intimate knowledge of France and its literary and cultural history, Margarete Zimmermann has provided lasting impetus to scholarly research both within and outside Germany. As a “salonnière de l’extrême contemporain,” she has become the discoverer of some of the most interesting contemporary authors, including Cécile Wajsbrot, for whom she had already organized an academic conference back in 2008.

Cécile Wajsbrot has received numerous awards as a writer, translator, and literary scholar. As a French author with Polish-Jewish roots, she divides her time between Paris and Berlin and is therefore regarded as an exemplary representative of “writing between worlds.” Her unique place within contemporary French literature stems from the fact that her work not only examines and captures the immediate present like a seismograph, but is also characterized by a keen historical awareness and an interest in processes of cultural mediation. During the 2018–19 winter semester, Cécile Wajsbrot held the Poetry Lectureship at the Center for France | Francophonie at the TUD Dresden University of Technology as part of a DRESDEN Fellowship.

Program

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Location: TU Dresden, SLK Faculty, Wiener Str. 48, 01219 Dresden, Room 004

5:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Reception for guests

6:00 – 6:15 p.m.
Opening remarks by the spokesperson for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Christian Prunitsch (TBD)

6:15 – 6:45 p.m.
Roswitha Böhm, Stephanie Bung, Andrea Grewe
Welcome and Introduction

6:45 – 7:30 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Annelies Schulte Nordholt (Leiden)
Listening, Recreating Music: The Figure of the Female Listener in *Conversations with the Master*

7:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Discussion

Friday, June 7, 2019

Location: TU Dresden, SLK Faculty, Wiener Str. 48, 01219 Dresden, Room 004

10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Prof. Dr. Susanne Zepp-Zwirner (Berlin)
Historical and Literary Experience: A German Autobiography by Hélène Cixous and Cécile Wajsbrot

10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Dr. Esther von der Osten (Berlin)
“At that time, I would sometimes respond.” Echo Takes Responsibility: Conversation and Translation in the Work of Cécile Wajsbrot

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Discussion

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Coffee break

12:00 – 12:45
Roswitha Böhm, Stephanie Bung, Andrea Grewe
A Salonnière of the Extreme Contemporary – A Tribute to Margarete Zimmermann

12:45 – 1:00 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Margarete Zimmermann: Response

1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Lunch break

2:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Bung (Duisburg-Essen)
The Arts’ Engagement with and Exploration of Time: *Totale éclipse* by Cécile Wajsbrot

3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Prof. Dr. Patricia Oster-Stierle (Saarbrücken)
Cécile Wajsbrot: A “collectionneuse de voix.” On her novels *L’Île auxmusées* and *Destruction*

3:30 – 4:15 p.m.
Discussion and closing remarks

6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Reading and conversation with Cécile Wajsbrot

“Explorer la question de la création” – The Haute Mer Arts Cycle
Location: Literaturhaus Villa Augustin, Antonstr. 1, 01097 Dresden