In addition to portraits and biographies, there are numerous other figurations of the particular that are meant to depict an individual human being. They can be reduced to a certain social or historical position – for example as lists of names – or even anonymized – for example in bureaucratic numbering systems – to such an extent that biographical peculiarities can only be read in encrypted form. While many prominent people are considered worthy of biographies and portraits, other biographies are often more tangible in contrast and compositional figures to artistic portraits and literary biographies, e.g. in diaries, letters, CVs, photo albums, Facebook or Instagram. The same seems to apply to historical societies in which the turning away from the self is more dominant than the turning away, in which the life story in contemporary history, the self-image merges with the image of time, as it was described, for example, for Chinese society up to the beginning of the 20th century. The annual conference will explore contrast and complementary figures in portraiture and biography in order to sharpen the understanding of figurations of the particular.
Program
Monday, July 1 – EVENING LECTURE
18.00 Hartmut Böhme (Berlin) Die andere Seite des Portraits: Zur Ästhetik von Rückenansichten // Respondent: Jürgen Barkhoff (Dublin)
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Tuesday, July 2
9.15 Welcome Address
SHARP CONTRAST? REFLECTIONS ON CONTRAST AND COMPLEMENTARY FIGURES OF PORTRAITURE AND BIOGRAPHY
9.30 Short presentations and panel discussion: Alexei Ditter (Portland), Adrian Robanus (Cologne), Martin Roussel (Cologne), Karena Weduwen (Cologne)
11.00 coffee break
EMBODIED LIFE WRITING: BODIES, CONTRASTS, AND COMPLEMENTARITY (I)
11.30 Ralf von den Hoff (Freiburg) Physical Defiance, Meaningful Bodies and Entertainment. The Roman Portrait of a Hunchback in the Baths of Caracalla // Robert Folger (Heidelberg) Embodied Self in Premodern Europe
12.30 lunch break
(AUTO)BIOGRAPHICAL FIGURATIONS OF THE PARTICULAR (I)
14.15 Günter Blamberger (Cologne) Elementarbiographik: Ein Bericht für eine Akademie
15.00 coffee break
EMBODIED LIFE WRITING: BODIES, CONTRASTS, AND COMPLEMENTARITY (II)
15.30 Sinah Kloß (Cologne) “Just another mark he gave me”: Tattoo Narratives and Body Politics in Caribbean Hindu Communities // Nadine Boljkovac (Falmouth) Affirmative Eco-cinéportraiture: Filmic Bodies
16.30 coffee break
17.00 Antonia Villinger (Cologne) The Pregnant Body: Biography, Gender and Embodiment in the Plays of Friedrich Hebbel // Royce Mahawatte (London) The Biography and the Beautiful: Cecil, Or the Adventures of a Coxcomb (1841) and the Biopolitics of the Fashioned Self
STOLPERN UND ERINNERN. STOLPERSTEINE UND ERINNERUNG AN INDIVIDU ELLES SCHICKSAL IM NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHEN MASSENMORD
18.30 Mit Birte Klarzyk (NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln) und Habbo Knoch (Historisches Institut der Universität zu Köln). Moderation: Dietrich Boschung (Köln)
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Wednesday, July 3
(AUTO)BIOGRAPHICAL FIGURATIONS OF THE PARTICULAR (II)
10.00 Jessey Choo (New Brunswick) Missing Persons: Writing the Biographies of Wartime Cannibals in Medieval China
10.45 Jochen Hellbeck (New Brunswick) Figurationen des „Bolschewisten“. Sowjetbürger im deutschen Visier, 1941–1942
11.30 coffee break
12.00 Jin Yang (Guangzhou) Portrait und Schrift im Wettstreit – Eine vergleichende Betrachtung zu W. G. Sebalds Erzählwerken Max Aurach, Austerlitz und Monika Marons Roman Pawels Briefe
12.45 lunch break
14.00 Martin Huber (Vienna/Cologne) „Im Jahr Dreitausend wird man den Geist unseres Jahrhunderts ausgraben, wenn man Stück für Stück mit dem Siegel Suhrkampverlag ausgraben wird.“ Briefe (auch) an die Nachwelt? Zum Briefwechsel zwischen Thomas Bernhard und Siegfried Unseld
14.30 Wolfram Nitsch (Cologne) Reduktionsformen des (Auto-) Biografischen in den Romanen Patrick Modianos
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Venue: Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, University of Cologne, Weyertal 59 (Rear Building, 3rd Floor), 50937 Cologne
Contact: Adrian Robanus (adrian.robanus[at]uni-koeln.de)
https://www.morphomata.uni-koeln.de/