Wissenschaftliche Konferenzen und Tagungen

24./2.07.2022 | International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA)| Tbilisi (Georgia)

Organisers:
Prof. Dr Bernard Dieterle (Université de Haute-Alsace)
Prof. em. Dr Manfred Engel (Saarland University)
Laura Vordermayer, Junior Researcher (Saarland University)

Link to the pdf version (English and French)

Dreams frighten and attract us because of their »otherness«, their manifold deviations from the world we know when being awake. One of the most consistently used techniques of coming to terms with this otherness has been the attempt to »make sense« of dreams, to consider and portray them as messages – sent, for instance, by supernatural forces or by the »unconscious « – which can and have to be deciphered. On the other hand (and much more rarely), dreams have been considered as a welcome source of ambiguity and non-sense, a source of entertainment, or as a key instrument to shatter or at least expand the limitations of a world view which is based on convention, reason, and the exclusion of the uncanny.

The workshop will analyze aspects of this dialectic in theoretical writings on the dream, in factual dream reports and in fictional representations of the dream in literature and all other media. We would be especially interested in proposals which show (1) how the »otherness« of the dream is celebrated and enjoyed, e.g. in genres and styles like the fantastic, nonsense, horror, surrealism, etc., and/or (2) how the dream is domesticated into a rebus, an allegory, a riddle which can and has to be solved. Papers (20 minutes) should focus on a close reading of two or three examples by different authors, ideally (but not necessarily) from different periods and/or different cultures; accepted languages are English and French. Virtual participation is not possible; participants will have to travel to Tbilisi. Proceedings will be published in our series »Cultural Dream Studies« (cf. www.dreamcultures.org).

Proposals (no more than 300 words; add 3 to 5 keywords and specify our workshop; language: English or French) have to be submitted via the congress site icla2022-tbilisi.ge/home/en

starting September 25; definitive deadline: November 15. You can additionally mail them to the organisers but uploading is obligatory. Membership of the ICLA is a requirement to present at the Congress. You can become a member via your national organisation or directly via the ICLA (10 € per annum; www.ailc-icla.org/membership-information/). Congress fee will be 120 € (early bird registration). You will be informed of the acceptance of your proposal in early December. In case of any questions do not hesitate to contact the organisers.

Internationale Nachwuchstagung des Graduiertenkollegs »Europäische Traumkulturen«

10.-12. Februar 2020, Villa Europa, Saarbrücken

Weitere Infos: hier (English version, version française)

Programm: hier

»Dreaming with all Senses. Sensory Perception in Aesthetic Dream Representations«

International Conference hosted by the DFG-funded Research Training Group »European Dream Cultures« (GRK 2021)

10-12 February 2020, Villa Europa, Saarbrücken

In her memoirs (1903), deaf-blind author Helen Keller writes: »In my dreams I have sensations, odours, tastes, and ideas which I do not remember to have had in reality.« In fact, dreams cannot be reduced to their visual and verbal dimension but include other forms of perception and experience: Neuroscientific research shows that dreaming involves all our senses (Bulkeley 2009, Schredl 2008). Above all efforts in psychoanalysis, hermeneutics or the natural sciences to ascribe functions and meanings to dreams, they are an elementary body experience: From the weightlessness of flying to the experience of paralysing stillness, from erotic excitement to physical impulses of anger or fear – dreaming takes place on the dimension of bodily and sensory perception.

Sensory perception itself opens up a vast field of possibilities for the arts. From the allegorical representation of the five senses in Flemish painting in the seventeenth century to the clarinet concerto D’om le vrai sens (2011) by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, from the late medieval tapestries La Dame à la licorne (sixteenth century) to Jeremy Podeswa’s episodic film The Five Senses (CAN 1999) or David Mackenzie’s science fiction drama film Perfect Sense (UK/DK/SE/IE 2011), the five sensory organs themselves often become the subject of aesthetic representation. Furthermore, synesthetic experiences – from Richard Wagner’s idea of Gesamtkunstwerk to Wassily Kandinsky or installation art – have become a way for the arts to transcend their sensory and medial limitations. Finally, it seems fitting to point to the thesis of philosopher Otto Friedrich Bollnow, stating that the sensory organs only become »real human senses« through art, which affirms the pedagogical and political function of the interdependency between aesthetic artefacts and sensory perception (Bollnow 1988: 31).

Even though dreams and aesthetics are both rooted in bodily experience and sensory perception, there has been little research on this topic. Some disciplines, such as phenomenologically oriented film studies (Barker 2009, Casetti 2008) or interdisciplinary approaches like the so-called somaesthetics (Shusterman 2005, 2012) have recently tried to analyse the interrelation of aesthetic artefacts and their bodily dimension. The DFG-funded Research Training Group »European Dream Cultures« (»Europäische Traumkulturen«, GRK 2021) has already held a conference on dreams as liminal experiences related to birth and death. It has also dedicated an anthology to their representations in literature, art, music and film (Bertola/Solte-Gresser 2019). The questions raised here will be considered at the planned conference by extending the thematic scope to sensory perception in dreams but at the same time by focussing on the specific characteristics of the aesthetic representation of such experiences. We welcome contributions analysing the presence, modes of representation and functions of dreams in art. According to the concept of the »European Dream Cultures« (Oster/Reinstädler 2017), the conference will pursue its subject across different cultures, eras, media and disciplines.

Examples for possible contributions include:

• Individual and/or collective sensory perceptions in aesthetic dream representations, relating to war, trauma, violence, colonial or postcolonial oppression, liberation.
• Use of dreamlike logic as a way of depicting sensory experiences that cannot be narrated conventionally or communicated in a logical/discursive manner.
• Design of innovative aesthetic forms or the challenging of traditional norms of representation and/or genres by means of a ‘different’ logic that focusses on the sensory perception in dreams.
• Synesthetic dream experiences and their representations in art.
• Sensory experiences of alterity in dreams (Doppelgänger, shifting into another person or transformation into animals and/or objects) and their aesthetic depiction.
• Aesthetic representations of dreams involving liminal experiences or transgressions related to the body or the senses, such as self-distance, changes of location, outer and inner spaces of the body, experiences of unusual or impossible body movements.
• Similarities and differences between the aesthetic representation of dreams during sleep and other dreamlike phenomena such as hallucination, ecstasy, visions, prophecies, traumatic flashbacks.
• Smelling, feeling, touching, tasting, seeing or hearing objects in their materiality and their aesthetic representation in/as dreams.
• Aesthetic representations of sensations in dreams, such as fear, joy, sensuality, uncanniness, or of the experience of time, space, sound and colour across different media.

Following the concept of the Research Training Group »European Dream Cultures« (http://www.traumkulturen.de/forschung-publikationen/forschungsprogramm.html#acc-2790), this call is addressed to early career researchers (doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers) from the disciplines of art, theatre, film, media, music and literary studies, as well as history, philosophy and other related studies.

Please submit your proposal as a word file to traumkulturen(at)uni-saarland.de by the 3rd of November 2019. Please describe your project – in English, German or French – in an abstract not exceeding 3,000 characters and include a short CV.

The languages spoken at the conference will be German, English and French. Following the conference, we plan to include selected contributions in a volume of the series Traum – Wissen – Erzählen, published by Fink (Paderborn).

Selected Bibliography

Barker, J. M. (2009). The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Berkeley.

Bertola, M. / Solte-Gresser, C. (2019). An den Rändern des Lebens. Träume vom Sterben und Geborenwerden in den Künsten. Paderborn.

Bollnow, O. F. (1988). Zwischen Philosophie und Pädagogik. Aachen.

Bulkeley, K. (2009). Seeking patterns in dream content: A systematic approach toward searches. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 905-916.

Casetti, F. (2008). Eye of the Century. Film, Experience, Modernity. New York.

Oster, P. / Reinstädler, J. (2017). Traumwelten. Interferenzen zwischen Text, Bild, Musik, Film und Wissenschaft. Paderborn.

Schredl, M. (2008). Traum. München.

Shusterman, R. (2005). Leibliche Erfahrung in Kunst und Lebensstil. Berlin.

Shusterman, R. (2012). Körper-Bewusstsein. Für eine Philosophie der Somaästhetik. Hamburg.

Please find a PDF version here.

»Rêver avec tous les sens. La perception sensorielle dans les représentations esthétiques du rêve«

Congrès international du DFG-Graduiertenkolleg »Cultures européennes du rêve« (GRK 2021)

Du 10 au 12 février 2020 à Villa Europa, Sarrebruck (Allemagne)

En 1903, l’écrivaine sourde et aveugle Hellen Keller écrit dans ses mémoires : « In my dreams I have sensations, odours, tastes, and ideas which I do not remember to have had in reality ». En effet, le rêve n’est pas réductible à ses dimensions visuelle et verbale, mais inclut d’autres formes de la perception et de l’expérience : Nous rêvons avec tous nos sens, les recherches neuroscientifiques le confirment (Bulkeley 2009, Schredl 2008). Bien avant toute tentative psychanalytique, herméneutique ou scientifique de lui attribuer des significations ou des fonctions précises, le rêve représente une expérience corporelle primaire : de l’apesanteur que l’on ressent lors de l’envol à l’expérience de la paralysie, de l’excitation érotique aux impulsions corporelles de la colère ou de la peur – le rêve fait directement vivre une dimension charnelle et sensorielle.

De son côté, la perception sensorielle représente un domaine fructueux pour la création artistique. Des allégories des cinq sens de la peinture flamande du XVIIe siècle au concert de clarinette D’om le vrai sens (2011) de la compositrice finlandaise Kaija Saariaho, des tapisseries La Dame à la licorne (XVIe siècle) au drame de science-fiction Perfect Sense (SE/UK/DK 2011) de David Mackenzie, en passant par le film épisodique The Five Senses (CAN 1999) de Jerey Podeswas, les cinq sens deviennent souvent eux-mêmes l’objet des représentations esthétiques. Les expériences synesthétiques – de l’idée de l’œuvre totale de Richard Wagner à Wassily Kandinsky et à l’installation artistique – constituent une autre dimension qui permet aux arts d’étendre les limites sensorielles et médiales. Enfin, le philosophe Otto Friedrich Bollnow émet l’hypothèse que c’est seulement par le biais de l’art que nos sens deviennent « des sens humains au sens propre », ce qui attribue une fonction pédagogique et même politique à l’interdépendance des artéfacts esthétiques et de la perception sensorielle (Bollnow 1988 : 31).

Malgré l’ancrage commun du rêve et de l’esthétique dans l’expérience charnelle et dans la perception sensorielle, la recherche sur ce sujet est peu avancée. Certaines disciplines, comme les sciences cinématographiques d’orientation phénoménologique (Barker 2009, Casetti 2008) ou des approches interdisciplinaires, telles que la soma-esthétique (Shusterman 2005 u. 2012), ont tenté récemment d’étudier le lien entre des artefacts esthétiques et leur dimension charnelle. Le DFG-Graduiertenkolleg « Cultures européennes du rêve » (GRK 2021) s’est confronté en mars 2018 au rêve comme expérience limite aux confins de la vie ; il a consacré un ouvrage collectif aux expériences oniriques qui abordent la naissance et la mort en littérature, art, musique et film (Bertola/Solte-Gresser 2019). Ce colloque se conçoit comme suite des problématiques discutées dans cet ouvrage, d’une part en étendant le spectre thématique à toutes les formes de la perception dans le rêve, d’autre part en se concentrant sur les spécificités de la mise en scène esthétique de telles expériences : des contributions qui étudient la présence, les mécanismes de représentation et les fonctions de la perception sensorielle dans différentes représentations oniriques seront les bienvenues. L’orientation du colloque est, en accord avec le concept des « cultures européennes du rêve » (Oster/Reinstädler 2017), interdisciplinaire, transmédiale et transséculaire.

Voici quelques exemples de problématiques possibles :

• La perception sensuelle, individuelle et/ou collective, dans différentes représentations esthétiques du rêve abordant guerres, traumatismes, violence, oppression coloniale et postcoloniale, libération.
• L’appropriation des logiques oniriques pour la représentation et la mise en scène d’expériences sensorielles qui échappent aux modes conventionnels de la narration ou de la médiation logique et discursive.
• La mise en question de genres et/ou de normes esthétiques établis ou la génération de formes esthétiques novatrices par le biais d’une logique onirique « différente », fondée sur l’expérience et centrée sur la perception sensorielle.
• Les expériences oniriques synesthétiques et leur représentation artistique.
• Les expériences sensorielles d’altérité dans le rêve (le double, la transposition dans le corps d’un étranger, la métamorphose en animal et/ou en objet) et leurs représentations artistiques.
• Les représentations esthétiques d’expériences limites ou de transgressions physiques et sensorielles dans le rêve, telles que la distance par rapport à soi-même, la téléportation, les espaces corporels extérieurs et intérieurs, l’expérience de mouvements physiques inhabituels, voire impossibles.
• Les convergences et les divergences des perceptions sensorielles dans différentes représentations esthétiques du rêve nocturne et des phénomènes connexes, tels que l’hallucination, l’ivresse, la vision, la prophétie, le flash-back traumatique.
• Les dimensions olfactive, tactile, gustative, visuelle ou auditive de la perception dans leur plasticité et leur représentation esthétique dans le rêve.
• Les mécanismes esthétiques de la représentation et de la mise en scène d’expériences oniriques qui abordent la peur, la joie, la sensualité, l’inquiétante étrangeté ou l’expérience du temps, de l’espace, du son et de la couleur dans différents médias.

Suivant l’orientation interdisciplinaire du DFG-Graduiertenkolleg « Cultures européennes du rêve » (http://www.traumkulturen.de/forschung-publikationen/forschungsprogramm.html#acc-2790), l’appel s’adresse aux jeunes chercheuses/jeunes chercheurs (doctorannt-e-s, postdoctorant-e-s et maître-sse-s de conférences sans HdR) en histoire de l’art, sciences théâtrales et cinématographiques, musicologie, littérature, ainsi qu’en histoire, philosophie et disciplines annexes.

Merci d’adresser votre proposition de 3000 signes maximum, rédigée en allemand, anglais ou français, ainsi qu’un court CV sous format WORD jusqu’au 3 novembre 2019 à : traumkulturen(at)uni-saarland.de

Les langues du colloque seront l’allemand, l’anglais et le français. Une publication de contributions choisies dans un volume de la série Traum – Wissen – Erzählen est prévue chez l’éditeur « Fink Verlag (Paderborn) ».

Bibliographie sélective

Barker, J. M. (2009). The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Berkeley.

Bertola, M. / Solte-Gresser, C. (2019). An den Rändern des Lebens. Träume vom Sterben und Geborenwerden in den Künsten. Paderborn.

Bollnow, O. F. (1988). Zwischen Philosophie und Pädagogik. Aachen.

Bulkeley, K. (2009). Seeking patterns in dream content: A systematic approach toward searches. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 905-916.

Casetti, F. (2008). Eye of the Century. Film, Experience, Modernity. New York.

Oster, P. / Reinstädler, J. (2017). Traumwelten. Interferenzen zwischen Text, Bild, Musik, Film und Wissenschaft. Paderborn.

Schredl, M. (2008). Traum. München.

Shusterman, R. (2005). Leibliche Erfahrung in Kunst und Lebensstil. Berlin.

Shusterman, R. (2012). Körper-Bewusstsein. Für eine Philosophie der Somaästhetik. Hamburg.

Appel à contribution au format PDF

»A gateway to secret existences«. Dream, Body and Sound in Kaija Saariaho’s music

Internationale Tagung unterstützt vom Graduiertenkolleg »Europäische Traumkulturen«

24.–25. Mai 2019, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken 

International Conference

»A gateway to secret existences«. Dream, Body and Sound in Kaija Saariaho’s music

24–25 May 2019 at Saarland University

Keynote Speaker Prof. Dr. Joy Calico (Vanderbilt University)

Clémence’s Waking Dream in Act II of »L’amour de loin«

Round-table discussion with Dr. Camilla Hoitenga

Chamber Concert with Caroline Melzer (Soprano) and Mihaela Tomi (Piano)

»I’m someone who remembers many of my dreams. […] But I don’t write dreamy, floaty music. It’s more to do with dreams as a gateway to secret existences, like death and love, the basic things that we know nothing about« (K. Saariaho).

In the course of the past two decades, Kaija Saariaho has become one of the most prominent personalities on the contemporary music scene: Committed to the tradition of the musical avant-garde, especially of Spectralism, Saariaho’s music nevertheless appeals to a very broad audience, extending far beyond the circle of contemporary music specialists and devotees. Quite remarkably, Saariaho shares a longstanding and multifaceted interest in the topic of dream: Well acquainted with Freud’s psychoanalysis and David Foulke’s cognitive psychology, as well as keeping a dream diary herself, Saariaho finds in dreams and their unique logic a valuable source of inspiration and a device for exploring new compositional procedures.

This international conference, hosted by the DFG-funded Research Training Group »European Dream Cultures«, addresses the presence of dream and its interconnections with the dimension of the body and of sound in Saariaho’s instrumental, vocal and theatrical works. By approaching the subject from disparate perspectives – ranging from Freudian or Lacanian psychoanalysis to gender studies and the cultural history of dream – the conference aims at investigating the anthropological, cultural, theological and philosophical related implications at the core of Saariaho’s music and its longstanding involvement with dreams.

The conference will be complemented by a chamber concert with Saariaho’s dream-related songs and by a round table discussion with Camilla Hoitenga, Saariaho’s longstanding flute interpreter.

The conference will take place at Saarland University from May 24–25, 2019. The conference language is English.

The symposium is free to attend but registration is required no later than May 1st, 2019 (mauro.bertola@uni-saarland.de).

»Träume von Geburt und Tod« | »Dreams of Birth and Death«

Internationale Tagung des Graduiertenkollegs »Europäische Traumkulturen«

21.–23. März 2018, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken 

Vom 21. bis 23. März 2018 fand die Internationale Tagung des Graduiertenkollegs »Europäische Traumkulturen« mit dem Titel »Träume von Geburt und Tod. Traumdarstellungen körperlicher Grenzerfahrungen in Literatur, bildender Kunst, Musik und Film« an der Universität des Saarlandes statt. Mit 22 Vorträgen und einer Keynote über Richard Wagners vielschichtiges Verhältnis zum Thema Traum von Prof. Dr. John Deathridge, Emeritus des King’s College London und weltweit führendem Wagner-Spezialist, hat die Tagung rund 50 WissenschaftlerInnen aus Deutschland, England, Frankreich, der Schweiz und den USA zusammengebracht, um über das überzeitliche Phänomen des geträumten Geborenwerdens und Sterbens, seine Wissensdiskurse und künstlerische Realisierungen nachzudenken.

Das breite thematische und mediale Spektrum der einzelnen Vorträge machte die ununterbrochene Relevanz von Geburts- und Sterbeträumen seit dem Mittelalter bis in die unmittelbare Gegenwart hinein ersichtlich: Bei Geburt und Tod handelt es sich um die beiden existenziellen (Grenz-)Erfahrungen an den Rändern des menschlichen Lebens, deren gesellschaftliche, religiöse oder genderspezifische Implikationen künstlerisch wie philosophisch auf vielfältige Weise ausgelotet wurden.

Am Ende des ersten Konferenztages fand in der Aula auch ein Liederabend statt, welcher das Konferenzthema musikalisch ausgestaltete: Reuben Willcox (Bariton) und Corinna Korff-Willcox (Klavier) haben mit großem Erfolg Lieder über das Träumen von unterschiedlichen Komponisten aus verschiedenen europäischen Ländern zu Gehör gebracht.

Die wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse der Tagung werden in Buchform publiziert.

International Conference hosted by the DFG-funded Research Training Group »European Dream- Cultures« (GRK 2021)

Dreams of Birth and Death. Liminal Bodily Experiences in Dreams: Literature, the Fine Arts, Music and Film  

21 - 23 March 2018 at Saarland University

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Dr. John Deathridge (King’s College London): Wagnertraum(a): 421 recorded dreams of a composer from Germany

Birth and death are situated at or beyond the borders of life; as such, they occur too early or too late to be perceived and recorded as authentic experiences. However, dreams – fictionalized, imagined, and performed – can open up experiential spaces for these extreme physical transitions.

The mysterious elements of dreams – their disregard for the physical laws of time and space, and for cultural models of identity, coherence and logic, are magnified in dreams of the beginning and end of life. Simultaneously, the artistic depiction of such experience is particularly challenging: memories and stories of dreams have to find ways and means to transform that which is »elsewhere« and unimaginable into something palpable and conveyable. From the antiquity to the present day we can find representations of dreams – whether in literary texts, paintings, music or in film – that focus on the limitations and boundaries of human life.

Bearing in mind the goal of pursuing a literary, cultural and media history of dreams and dreaming, the international conference »Dreams of Birth and Death«, hosted by the DFG-funded Research Training Group »European Dream Cultures«, is dedicated to the phenomena of dreamed birth and death, related discourses and artistic realisations.

The conference will take place at Saarland University from March, 21-23, 2018. Conference languages are German, English and French. The symposium is free to attend but registration is required no later than March 1, 2018 (traumkulturen(at)uni-saarland.de).

»Traum und Inspiration« | »Dream and Inspiration«

Internationale Nachwuchstagung des Graduiertenkollegs »Europäische Traumkulturen«

5.–7. Oktober 2016, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken 

Vom 5. bis 7. Oktober fand die interdisziplinäre Nachwuchstagung »Traum und Inspiration. Aktuelle Ansätze zu einem Topos in Kunst und Literatur« des Graduiertenkollegs »Europäische Traumkulturen« an der Universität des Saarlandes statt. Insgesamt siebzehn Promovierende und Postdoktoranden aus Deutschland und dem europäischen Ausland stellten Beispiele aus der Kunst-, Literatur-, Medien- und Musikwissenschaft zur Diskussion. Das kreative Potential von Traumerfahrungen für die künstlerische Produktion vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart wurde dabei ebenso in den Blick genommen, wie theoretische Positionen, die den Topos mitunter abwertend für regelfremde, phantastische Werke aufgriffen, zu anderen Zeiten aber auch für die Mythenbildung des Künstlergenies nutzbar machten. Für den Abendvortrag konnte Prof. Dr. Andrea Allerkamp (Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder) gewonnen werden, die mit ihrem Beitrag »Ähnlichkeiten entdecken. Für eine Minimalästhetik des Traums« ausgehend von Paul Valéry die Debatten um einen ästhetik-philosophischen Ansatz bereicherte. Mit über fünfzig Teilnehmer_innen war die Veranstaltung erfreulich gut besucht und bot Gelegenheit zum internationalen und fächerübergreifenden Austausch.