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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;
color:#365F91'>Literary Studies in the New Decade<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:#943634'>Diefenbaker Lecture Series 2010<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='color:black'>IS
THERE STILL A NEED FOR THE STUDY OF LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITY? These lectures
will demonstrate that there most certainly is. By discussing the issues and
problems that are currently central to their research in German studies, these
leading scholars will explore how literary studies can fulfill the expectations
of an academic discipline and connect with wider society. Of interest to anyone
who cares about literature and its place at the university.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><u>Fourth Lecture</u><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='color:#943634'>Tuesday,
16 March 2010, 1pm – Tatham Centre 2218<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b>John Smith, University of
California at Irvine<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b>“Is God Dead? Modern
German Thought for a Postsecular World”<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'>Does the history of modern
philosophy, as the theologian Hans Küng has asked, lead
“inevitably” to the “death of God”? The idea that our
age could be considered “postsecular” allows us to look back at the
development of modernity in a new light that brings out a<span
class=eudoraheader> more complicated dialectic than a story of monolinear
secularization. The German tradition—from the Reformation through
Idealism, Nietzsche, and early 20<sup>th</sup>-century crisis theology, to the
contemporary debates between Habermas and Benedict XVI—provides the
central arena for exploring “dialogues between faith and reason”
that contribute to a better understanding of our present condition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><u>Fifth Lecture</u><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='color:#943634'>Friday,
19 March 2010, 1pm – Tatham Centre 2218<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b>Richard Langston, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>“Literary Realism in the Age of
Digital Networks</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.2pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Over the past five decades, dominant trends
in literary theory have left the concept of literary realism—a literary
idiom intent on imitating reality—in ill repute; realism still provokes
sophisticated scholarly arguments for denying its referential function. While
seemingly bankrupt within literary theory, the concept of realism is, however,
alive and well in other disciplines (like media studies) that critically query
the digital images and virtual narratives circulating throughout our postmodern
world. When sited within this media ecology, literary realism inhabits a
marginal yet nevertheless especially powerful place. This presentation
illuminates how one unique brand of contemporary German realism—the
stories of Alexander Kluge—intervenes in this aesthetic economy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><u>Sixth Lecture</u><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='color:#943634'>Tuesday,
30 March 2010, 1pm<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span lang=EN-GB>Susanne Kord,
University College London<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span lang=EN-GB>The Kempner
Effect: Germany’s Worst Poet and her Laughter Communities <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'>This lecture has been cancelled.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><i><span style='color:black'>These
lectures are being held in conjunction with the search for the inaugural holder
of the Rt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker Memorial Chair in German Literary Studies: </span></i><a
href="http://germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca/diefenbakerchair"><b><i>http://germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca/diefenbakerchair</i></b></a><b><i><span
style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><i><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='color:black'>A snazzy
downloadable poster for the entire lecture series is available at </span></b><a
href="http://www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca/documents/Diefenbaker2010LectureSeries.pdf"><b>http://www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca/documents/Diefenbaker2010LectureSeries.pdf</b></a><b><span
style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.2pt'><b><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>James M. Skidmore<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Chair of the Dept. of
Germanic & Slavic Studies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Faculty of Arts / University
of Waterloo<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 CANADA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>E | <a
href="mailto:skidmore@uwaterloo.ca">skidmore@uwaterloo.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>W | <a
href="www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore">www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>W | <a
href="www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca">www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>T | 519.888.4567, x33687<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>F | 519.746.5243<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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