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/narrating29
- International Conference: Narrating Catastrophes. References to the (European) Holocaust and their Function
- 2026-05-29T09:15:00+02:00
- 2026-05-29T20:00:00+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)
29.05.2026 von 09:15 bis 20:00 (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
Friday, 29th May
9:15-12:45
Panel V: Post-Slavery Narratives
Moderation: Ineke Ohaf-Rheineberger
Márcio Seligmann-Silva (Universidade Estadual de Campinas São Paulo)
Artefactos culturales como actos contra-coloniales
Jan Alber (JLU Gießen)
How Aboriginal Novels Move beyond the Catastrophe of the Australian Assimilation
Programme: The Case of Kim Scott's Benang
Filipe Antunes Madeira da Silva (Universidad de los Andes)
“The Victorious Descendants of the Holocaust”: Narrating the Past and the Rubber Crimes
11:15-11:30
Coffee Break
11:30-12:45
Hugo Hernán Ramírez (Universidad de los Andes)
El lugar del Holocausto en La ceiba de la memoria de Roberto Burgos Cantor
Paul Scheidt (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
Learning from which Catastrophes? A Transnational Analysis of Learning from Collective Traumata
12:45
Verena Dolle (JLU Gießen)
Closing Words
13:00-14:00
Lunch Break
19:00
Round Table “The Holocaust Legacy in Present Times: Challenges for Veracity and Truth?” (A. Binsch, P. Scheidt, S. Sosnowski, V. Dolle)
Margarete-Bieber-Saal
Ludwigstraße 34, 35390 Gießen
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).