Migration Literature Unit
As early as 1998, Walter Schmitz, in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Dresden, organized a conference entitled "Wanderers - Emigrants - Refugees: German-speaking authors whose mother tongue is not German", which combined specialist lectures with readings, among other things. The connections with quite a few authors were deepened, not least thanks to the support of the Robert Bosch Foundation, for example through participation in the event at the Villa Decius in Krakow in 2001. Above all, however, the Chamisso Poetry Lectureship for Migrant Literature was held at the MitteleuropaZentrum of the TUD Dresden University of Technology from 2000 to 2011 under his project management. The lecturers were: Yüksel Pazarkaya, Gino Chiellino, Adel Karasholi, Ilma Rakusa, Vladimir Vertlib, José F.A. Oliver, Zsuzsanna Gahse, Hussain Al-Mozany, Ota Filip and Francesco Micieli.
The poetry lectures are published and a separate book series "Wortwechsel" was founded. Each volume contains a detailed afterword and a bibliography.
Chamisso Prize/Hellerau
In 2019, a new Chamisso Prize was established in Dresden to honor authors who formulate literary responses to the challenges of our pluralistic and globalized world based on their personal experience of a change of language or culture. The MitteleuropaZentrum has supported the foundation of the new prize from the very beginning and has taken over the prize secretariat of the Chamisso Prize/Hellerau for the inaugural year.
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Chamisso Poetry Lectureship
From 2000-2011, the MitteleuroapZentrum, in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Chair of Modern German Literature and Cultural History at TU Dresden, invited authors to give lectures on writing in a foreign country, their own experiences of migration and intercultural perception.
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Publications and lectures
Walter Schmitz / Daniela Kölling: Is there a literature of migration? On the conception of a handbook on the literature of migration in the German-speaking countries since 1945. In: How many languages does literature speak? Contemporary German-language literature from Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Renata Cornejo, Sławomir Piontek, Izabela Sellmer and Sandra Vlasta, Vienna: Praesens Verlag 2013.
[Abstract]
Walter Schmitz: Is there a literature of migration? On the conception of a handbook on the literature of migration in the German-speaking countries since 1945.
[to the lecture presentation]
Handbook on the literature of migration in German-speaking countries since 1945
This handbook is the first comprehensive presentation of the literature of German-language authors of non-German mother tongue as well as of those authors who can now be categorized as members of a subsequent generation of this group and who often address this categorization themselves.
The first part of the handbook places the development of the literature of migration in the context of social developments and debates. The second part illustrates systematic aspects of German-language literature on migration; the third and programmatic part comprises a total of 245 articles on the relevant authors and works.
Volume 1 of the handbook has been published to date.
Seminar Migration Literature at the Institute of German Studies / Chair of Modern German Literature and Cultural History
In the winter semester 2011/2012, a project seminar on 'Migration Literature' was offered under the direction of Prof. Walter Schmitz, accompanied by Daniela Kölling, as part of the Master's degree program in German Studies at TU Dresden. In addition to a thematic introduction, students were given the opportunity to write their own articles for new publications by well-known 'migration authors'. In the practice-oriented seminar, students were also asked to critically examine research literature dealing with the topic of 'migration literature' in order not only to become familiar with general literary practices, but also to gain a lasting impression of the specifics of the research subject.
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