[ Call for Papers ]

Catherine Grimm and Alison Guenther-Pal are organising a panel on Fashioning the Body: Bodies, Fashion and Self-presentation in pre-20th Century German Literature and Culture. The 2008 Women in German Conference is to be held on Ocotober 23/24, 2008 in Snowbird/UT.

Deadline for proposals is March 15, 2008.

Proposals are invited for a pre-20th century panel that speak to the symbolic and cultural meaning(s) of clothing and the body as they relate to (self)-presentation. What is the relationship between embodiment, identity, and the clothed or fashionable body? How is this relationship depicted in pre-twentieth century cultural (con)texts. Issues that papers may wish to address include: how clothed and unclothed bodies have been thematized in pre-twentieth century texts and contexts; what bodies and fashions (e.g., clothes, accessories, hair-styles) signify regarding status and categories of identity in the cultural arena of the German-speaking world; how fashion works to socially situate the body and how such placements are undermined; how the concept of embodiment relates to the clothed and fashionable body. Interdisciplinary projects as well as papers from different academic and theoretical perspectives are especially welcome.

Please send abstracts (250-500 words) electronically by March 15, 2008 to both panel organizers:

Cathie Grimm: cgrimm@albion.edu
Alison Guenther-Pal: guenthea@lawrence.edu


Catherine Grimm, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of German
Albion College,
Albion, MI 49224 (517) 629-0269