International Conference: Narrating Catastrophes. References to the (European) Holocaust and their Function
This conference brings together international experts from Europe, Latin America, and the United States and is devoted to the question of how catastrophes of great magnitude, here understood as man-made disasters, are narrated in the literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, and how the European Holocaust, as a “travelling memory” (Erll), has been received and trans-formed within specific communities of memory, and how it has been functionalized as a “universal trope” and “powerful prism” (Huyssen)
- https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb05/romanistik/aktuelles/cal/narrating28
- International Conference: Narrating Catastrophes. References to the (European) Holocaust and their Function
- 2026-05-28T09:15:00+02:00
- 2026-05-28T17:30:00+02:00
- This conference brings together international experts from Europe, Latin America, and the United States and is devoted to the question of how catastrophes of great magnitude, here understood as man-made disasters, are narrated in the literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, and how the European Holocaust, as a “travelling memory” (Erll), has been received and trans-formed within specific communities of memory, and how it has been functionalized as a “universal trope” and “powerful prism” (Huyssen)
28.05.2026 von 09:15 bis 17:30 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Multifunktionsraum, Otto-Behaghel-Straße 12, 35394 Gießen
Responsible for the Workshop
Prof. Dr. Verena Dolle
Institut für Romanistik
Karl-Glöckner Straße 21 G
35394 Gießen
Contact
Thursday, 28th May
9:15-11:15
Panel II: Detecting and Overcoming (?) Silences I
Moderation: Hanna Nohe
Lisa Peschel (University of York)
Testimony on Theatre in the Theresienstadt Ghetto for Survivors’ Reintegration in 1960s Czechoslovakia
Stefan Peters (JLU Gießen/CAPAZ)
Discussing Silences in Latin American Memory Studies
Emily M. Baker (University College London)
Centering the Holocaust, Decentering Identity in Latin American Literature (online)
11:15-11:30
Coffee Break
11:30-13:30
Panel III: Detecting and Overcoming (?) Silences II
Moderation: Verena Dolle
Saúl Sosnowksi (University of Maryland)
Memorias a la sombra: la cárcel del olvido
Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger (JLU Gießen, assoc.)
The Fear of Loss: Conversations between Son andFather in New York
Sabine Schlickers (Universität Bremen)
Collaboration, Betrayal, Forbidden Relationships: References to the Holocaust in Latin American Literature
13:30-15:00
Lunch Break
15:00-17:30
Panel IV: (Entangled) Narratives on the Holocaust and the Armed Conflict in Colombia
Moderation: Saúl Sosnowski
Pablo Montoya (Universidad de Antioquía)
¿Cómo narrar desaparición forzada en La sombra de Orión? (online)
16:00-16:15
Coffee Break
Lorena Cardona González (Universidad de Caldas)
De una guerra a otra: Memorias cruzadas de la Shoah y la violencia nacional en la novelística colombiana
Jacobo Celnik (Bogotá)
El pintor de Auschwitz: Secretos y descubrimientos de una familia fragmentada por el Holocaust
The conference is funded by the DFG as part of the research project “Entangled Memories and their Dynamics: ‘h/Holocaust’ in Colombian Literature from 1985 until 2022“ (Project no. 543780449).