After the Wall: Reconstructing and Representing the GDR

Concluding conference of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Network

‘After the Wall: Reconstructing and Representing the GDR’

Remembering and Rethinking the GDR: Multiple Perspectives and Plural Authenticities?

8-10 September 2010 – Bangor University

Twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany, the memory of the GDR is experiencing an ever increasing boom. As physical signs of German division disappear from the united landscape, new sites of memory are being created, ranging from consumer-orientated Ostalgie to the documentation of political oppression. The diversification of this memory landscape – in both content and form – and the conflicting nature of many narratives has led not only to a blurring of boundaries between history and memory (‘myth’) but also to a reappraisal of the longer-term legacy of the GDR in unified Germany.

This interdisciplinary conference sets out to question the ongoing tendency to categorise memories of the GDR into neat polar opposites (e.g. ‘Alltag versus dictatorship’ or ‘perpretrator versus victim’). Whilst such concepts may partly be driven by public funding strategies, political narratives, or the demands of tourism, they are not always helpful in uncovering the multiple layers of memory and revealing the dynamic interplay between memory and history. We therefore particularly welcome papers which seek to question the polar opposites outlined above, and which challenge the dominant paradigms of discussion about GDR history. We hope that papers will suggest new ways of thinking about this past so as to do justice to what might be described as ‘plural authenticities’ and the multiple GDRs of the mind.

As the concluding event of the AHRC-funded interdisciplinary research network ‘After the Wall’, the conference also aims to foreground theoretical questions of memory, and to examine the interplay between form and memory. According to a number of memory theorists, the way societies choose to remember the past is necessarily influenced by the media they use to extend the limited range of individual memories. Contributors are thus encouraged to consider how different forms of remembrance may condition varied memories of the GDR past.

In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the network, contributions from any academic field are welcome. Papers may address – but are not limited to – the following themes:

• Reflections on the twentieth anniversary celebrations of 2009
  
• Public memory contests
  
• Autobiographical recollections
  
• Literary reflections
  
• Monuments, museums and material culture
  
• The GDR on screen
  
• Political interpretations of the GDR and the effect on contemporary party politics
  
• The periodisation of remembrance since 1989
  
• The politics of East German memory in unified Germany
  
• Commemorative acts
  
• Visual culture

Following the discursive nature of the Network, the organisers would like to encourage reflective papers which seek to challenge and question existing conceptions, rather than to present conclusive results. The aim is to allow ample time for discussion, which will help to shape contributions for an edited volume. Papers which are to be considered for the volume will be expected to engage with theoretical questions of memory.

Contributors are asked to submit:

1. a 300 word abstract
   
2. a bullet-pointed list of the central questions which the paper seeks to ask (it is envisaged that these will be published on the website prior to the conference, in order to stimulate debate).

These should be submitted to Anna Saunders and Debbie Pinfold at afterthewall@bangor.ac.uk by Monday 25 January 2010. Papers may be given in English or German.

The ‘After the Wall’ network was established in January 2009 in order to examine the ways in which the East German past has been – and is being – reconstructed and represented since the demise of the GDR. The project is the result of collaboration between Bangor University and the University of Bristol, and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Further information can be found at: http://afterthewall.bangor.ac.uk.