SECRETS AND LIES
Narrative Approaches to Reality in German Literature and Culture

2004 German Studies Conference at Stanford University

March 5-6, 2004

The graduate students of Stanford University’s Department of German Studies invite proposals addressing the tensions between truth and fiction. Realism in narrative literature and visual art, and standards of objectivity in historical, scientific, and political fields have developed as strategies of representing reality as truthfully as possible.

What happens if the same methods are appropriated for purposes other than realistic representation, are implemented with fraudulent intentions, for the fabrication of falsehoods, to suspend reality or withhold information? Or what if concepts of reality become so complex that conventional methods of art, philosophy and historiography fail to represent reality adequately?

The 2004 Stanford German Studies Conference will explore truth-twisting and other surreptitious strategies in literature, art, public discourse, and historiography.

Paper topics may include (but are not limited to):

- Invented traditions
- Totalitarianism and propaganda
- Memory repression and memory fabrication
- Double lives
- Conspiracies and conspiracy theories
- Lies, truth and secrets in political discourse
- Rumors and hearsay
- Deception and self-deception
- Secret documents as text
- The truth revealed: mystery and detective stories
- Skeletons in the closet: family secrets
- Disclosing secrets: coming out
- Lies, truth and secrets in political discourse
- Secrets and lies in fairy tales and children’s literature
- Projections of empirical truth in scientific, journalistic, and other “objective” forms of writing

Paper presentations should not exceed 20 minutes.
Proposal due date: November 1, 2003.

Please send a one-page abstract to Kristin Rebien at krebien@stanford.edu, or mail to
Secrets and Lies Conference
Department of German Studies
Pigott Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2030