The German Graduate Student Association of the University of Cincinnati and the editors of the graduate student journal Focus on German Studies present the Nineteenth Annual Focus Graduate Student Conference to be held 10-12 October 2014 at the University of Cincinnati.
Creating, Questioning, and Playing with Reality: Living in Worlds of Pure Imagination?
Alex Hogue, Matthew Bauman, Acacia Diniz
Department of German Studies
University of Cincinnati, USA
10-12 October 2014, Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati
Please send 250 word abstracts to fogs.editor@gmail.com by August 1, 2014.
Keynote Speaker: TBD
Whether set in a far off time and space, in an alternate world, or in the mind of a character, narratives that create, question, and play with reality reflect the abilities of authors, filmmakers, and video game designers to not only explore their own creativity, but also to lay bare our understanding of reality from the safe distance offered by fiction. Theorist Fredric Jameson has argued that science fiction in particular offers insights less about any alternative past or future, but about the present in which the work was produced. In expanding Jameson’s idea beyond a single genre, this interdisciplinary conference will explore how and why various notions of reality are constructed.
Submissions are welcome from any discipline. Papers may be presented in either German or English.
Possible panels include but are not limited to:
- “Warp, Hyperdrive, or the TARDIS? Overcoming the Here and Now in Science Fiction”
- “Seeing is Believing. Perceiving and Constructing Reality in Visual Culture”
- “Me and My Avatar: Games, Gaming, and Interactivity”
- “And Now for Something Completely Different: Counterfactual Histories and Historical Fiction”
Other possible topics include but are not limited to:
- Science fiction
- Fantasy
- Counterfactual history
- Alternate Reality
- Video games
- Superheroes
- Comic books and graphic novels
- Philosophy of mind
- Digital culture
- Digital humanities
- Social media
- Stream of consciousness
- Based on a true story…
