IGS Autumn Conference, 17–19 October 2018 in Graz at the Meerscheinschlössl “On the Relationship between Resonance and Reception”

The 2018 Fall Conference will explore how people form relationships with the world – with other people, with objects, with nature, with themselves, with the transcendent, and with God or gods. The nature of these relationships with the world, in turn, reveals a great deal about the culture in question and the social positions (e.g. gender positions, social inequalities) that shape it.

Texts, images and objects often play an important role in ritual practices – in antiquity, mostly in religious contexts. However, these are not static, predetermined or immutable. The conference therefore aims to examine the phenomenon of reception and the actualisations, adaptations and reinterpretations resulting from such receptions. In doing so, the focus will be not only on intertextual receptions but also on intermedial references reflected in texts, images (linguistic imagery and iconographic representations) and objects. The experience of resonance can offer an approach here, as the unavailability of a reaction from a participating actor (reader, viewer, user, writer, etc.), to provide a new dimension of interpretation for the processes in chains of reception or transformation.

The conference for all doctoral candidates and teaching staff at the IGS aims to discuss current research on reception and resonance in line with the research questions outlined by the research group.

What strategies can be found in texts or among certain authors to facilitate resonance? How do reception processes work in and through images and objects, which can circulate differently compared to texts? What is received at what times and in what situations, and what is not? What role do reception communities play in the development of traditions as socially widely recognised forms of reception? Why do such traditions often prove to be more ‘resonant’ than others? What power constellations underlie reception processes that are capable (at least temporarily) of generating resonance?

To facilitate an in-depth discussion and preparatory reflection specifically on the latter questions, speakers’ papers will be sent out in advance (papers must be submitted by 3 October 2018).

 

Participants:

- PhD students from the first and second cohorts in Graz and Erfurt, faculty members from the IGS in Graz and Erfurt   

- Guest speakers

Helmut Birkhan, Vienna / Volker Hesse / Nina Zahner, Düsseldorf

- IGS speakers                                     

Irmtraud Fischer / Enno Friedrich / Ursula Gärtner / Eveline Krummen / Sarah Lang / Sabine Tausend / Markus Vinzent

 

Panel discussion with director Volker Hesse on Thursday, 18 October 2018, in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology

“Resonant Texts or Resonant Themes? On the Reception of Literary Works in Theatre”