The University

THE REGION, EUROPE, THE WORLD
Aspects of Narration
From September 24-27, Szczecin University and the seaside town of Pobierowo jointly
hosted the fifth in the series of international symposiums on Germanistics for scholars from
Scandinavia, Germany and Poland, this time devoted to writings from and about the region.
Janina Gesche
German and Polish
philologist; assistant
professor at Gdańsk
University’s Institute
of German Philology;
researcher at the University
of Stockholm
Prof. Bernd Neumann
during the opening speech.
Sitting from the left: Prof.
Józef Perenc, Szczecin
University Vice-rector for
Finance and Development;
Prof. J. Hackmann and A.
Talarczyk, PhD.
Photo: Jerzy Giedrys
24
Entitled Aspects of Narration: Regional Literature
and Literature about the Region [„Erzählregionen:
Regionales Erzählen und Erzählen über
eine Region“], the conference brought together
experts from nine countries, including Norway,
Sweden, Latvia, Austria, hungary, the Czech Republic,
Australia, along with those from Germany
and Poland. Delegates explored issues of German
literature from the Baltic Sea region, as well as
literatures from other border regions in Europe.
The papers presented at the symposium referred
to problems concerning literary translation, comparative
literature and film as a medium.
Sponsored in part by the West Pomeranian
Marshal’s Office and put together with the assistance
of the institute of German Studies at the
University of Trondheim, the symposium is the
latest in a series of collaborative efforts between
the University’s institute of German Philology and
the Baltic Academy in Lübeck. Formerly called the
the Ostsee-Akademie in Travemünde, the
Baltic Academy has been an active partner
in organizing several seminars during the
last few decades. in 1995, the Academy and
institute jointly published a book entitled
Szczecin 1945-1946: Documents – Memories,
with parallel texts in Polish and German.
The symposium opened at the Senate
hall in Szczecin, where participants were
greeted by vice-rector Józef Perenc, Jacek
Baraniecki, director of the Marshal’s Office
Regional Policy Department, Academia Baltica
board member Jörg hackmann, and
representatives from the organizing institutions.
They included SU’s Andrzej Talarczyk,
Andreas Degen from the Baltic Academy
and Bernd Neumann from Trondheim.
in their presentations, speakers touched upon
various notions of widely understood regional
literature and examined the works beyond their
geographic scope. Works by Johannes Bobrowski,
Uwe Johnson, Siegfried Lenz, Walter Kempowski,
ingeborg Bachmann, Artur Becker, Christoph
Ransmayr, and Peter Turrinis served as the basis
for the analysis.
Delegates discussed a wide range of problems
and notions characteristic for this type of literature.
in the papers submitted for the event, theoreticians
and researcher focused on the region as
a place of reminiscence in literature (Andreas Degen,
Andrzej Talarczyk, Ewa Płomińska-Krawiec),
on the role of the province in shaping an individual’s
awareness (Miłosława Borzyszkowska-
Szewczyk, Krisztina Balàzs), and on the influence
of the region’s historical and political changes
on the awareness of its inhabitants (Alexandra