Symposium (October 30, 2004)

"Post-Postmoderne? Theorie und Literatur um die Jahrtausendwende"
Symposium at Trier University, October 30, 2004, 9-18h, E 52

Content

Has the contemporary novel at the turn of the twenty-first century finally detached itself from its postmodern predecessors? This question delineates one of the most urgent present-day issues of literary research. As it seems, there are many international writers at present who share an inclination for obsolescent realistic modes of representation in their novels. Will this tendency prove to be the dominant mode of transition from the old into the new millennium, or are there other literary and philosophical ways of transgressing the postmodern borderline.

The symposium will deal with these pressing issues, reconsidering theoretical assumptions on contemporary fiction, in order to answer the question how a prospective post-postmodern novel might be designed.

Program

9.00h
Opening of the Symposium

9.30h
"Renovation within Ruination - Ideen der Postmoderne"
Dagmar Lonien, M.A. M.A. (University of Trier)

10.30h
"'Past the Last Post'? Aspekte zeitgenössischer Postmodernekritik"
Kerstin Dell, M.A. M.A. (University of Trier)

13.30h
"'A Pizza Is A Referent': Postmodern Uncertainties
and the Necessity of Realism and the Rational Agent"
Lutz Schowalter, M.A. (University of Trier)

15.00h
"'The Light Of The Oncoming Train' - John Banville
und das Erzählen jenseits der Postmoderne"
Dr. Thorsten Wilhelmy (University of Bonn)

16.00h
"The Ethics of Storytelling: Narrative Authority and
Authorial Responsibility in Ian McEwan's Later Fiction"
Prof. Dr. Anja Müller-Wood (University of Mainz)