CFP: FOCUS On German Studies, Vol. 28: "Spielformen des Authentischen" (Graduate Student Journal) (Deadline 20 November 2019)

Call for Papers (Grad Student Journal)

FOCUS On German Studies, Vol.28: Spielformen des Authentischen

„Das dokumentarische Theater enthält sich jeder Erfindung, es übernimmt authentisches Material und gibt dies, Inhalt unverändert, in der Form bearbeitet, von der Bühne aus wieder.

Peter Weiss, „Notizen zum dokumentarischen Theater“, 1968

The past years have shown a vast variety of artistic practices in which the pre-/re-/establishment of factual events and social realities have once again re-claimed a major significance. Traceable throughout various ‘Spielarten’, the authentic/realistic/factual has found its way back into artistic practice and academic discussion – documentary and biographical theatre, theatre as tribunal, forensic aesthetics and its artistic specifications, the current realism debate with regard to German Theatre as well as practices of reenactment and the academic interest into all of these themes and issues are vivid examples. Even though none of these interlinked phenomena are inherently ‘new’ appearances (which becomes evident with the quote by Peter Weiss or the development of 19th century Realism as a literary movement), they seem to find themselves at a new advent. However, this resurfacing invites numerous and intriguing questions, which we would like to examine in the upcoming volume 28 of the annual FOCUS on German Studies Journal.

We are broadly interested in terminological and conceptual problems, specific manifestations, genealogical approaches and general questions and potentials connected to the aforementioned themes. Specific questions and topics can include, but are not limited to:

• Terminological and conceptual definitions: delimitations of ‘real’ /’realism’/ ‘authenticity’/ ‘fact’/ ‘fiction’

• Renegotiating and reinventing the past: critical perspectives on (historical) reenactment

• Memory studies

• Legal-theatrical productions: the theatre stage as tribunal and the intersection of juridical and theatrical practices in general

• Documentary theatre and film: potentials and limitations • Developments and re-conceptualizations of genres and movements

• The realism debate

We are anticipating articles by Graduate Students that deal with the given topics in a German-Speaking context, which can be written in German or English. Articles should be 15-25 pages in length and will pass 2 rounds of blind peer review before publication.

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE / PROCEEDINGS:

Submit an Abstract of your Article (300-500 words) to Anna-Maria Senuysal and Mareike Lange at fogs.editor@gmail.com by November 20th, 2019. We will announce decisions by late November and inform participants about further proceedings.

Final articles will be due January 30th.

Estimated Publication Date is September 2020.