Call for Papers “WEIMAR COLONIALISM”
School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
National University of Ireland Maynooth, 12-14 April 2012
Organisers: Professor Florian Krobb, Dr Elaine Martin

German colonialism was marked by its extraordinarily brief lifespan. Germany was a latecomer to the colonial scene in 1884 and was forced to relinquish colonial possessions after the First World War – a mere thirty-five years later. Germans, however, partook in the European colonial project at the level of the imagination for a decidedly lengthy period prior to the acquisition of colonies and in the aftermath of their confiscation. The “colonial fantasies” of pre-colonial Germany have been the subject of extensive research; the colonial discourse in the immediate aftermath of colonial loss is the focus of this conference. Entirely stripped of her colonial possessions at the Treaty of Versailles, Germany, unlike other European nations, was faced with the end of empire well before the end of the European colonial project. Germany became, to borrow Marcia Klotz’ phrase, “a postcolonial state in a still-colonial world”. What makes the constellation of the German colonial experiment additionally unique is the fact that it was brought to an end not because of national liberation movements in the colonies or international processes of decolonisation. Rather, Germany’s transition from imperial power to postcolonial nation took place amidst domestic political collapse, military defeat and foreign occupation. This atypical case of colonial loss left behind a strong legacy for German literature, culture and public discourse. Curiously, the colonial theme blossomed in the two decades that followed the confiscation of Germany’s overseas territories, a clear indication that the colonial imagination continued to be deeply rooted in German society beyond the duration of the formal colonial experiment. In fact, as noted by David Thomas Murphy, a striking aspect of colonial discourse during Weimar’s “crusade for colonies” is “the disparity between the actual significance that the overseas empire held for Germany and the enormous amount of language, paper, ink, and futile energy expended on its recovery after the Versailles peace settlement.” This conference sets itself the task of investigating the manner in which colonial loss found expression in the literary and public discourse of the Weimar period. It seeks to explore the colonial consciousness of the former metropole by mapping out the field between loss and desire and between imaginings and realities. Areas for consideration are not limited to but might include:

- the overseas in the literary, filmic, and artistic imagination of the Weimar period;
- the extolling of colonial life and the propagation of expansionist ideals and chauvinistic rhetoric of alleged German superiority in the literature and public discourse of this period, be it explicit or implicit;
- the resonances between literary intervention and public discourse, and between their respective agendas and methods;
- new aesthetics and functions of exoticism;
- activities of colonial associations;
- the discourse of reverse colonialism: the so-called ‘black horror’ on the Rhine;
- the relation between the narrative of emigration to colonial space and the loss of overseas possessions;
- colonialism and the political landscape;
- continuities beyond Weimar.

The language of the conference is English. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are invited for thirty-minute papers. Please send proposals to either Florian.Krobb@nuim.ie or Elaine.Martin@nuim.ie. It is intended that the conference proceedings will be published.
Deadline for submissions: 25 April 2011