Activities & Publications
Joint Workshop: „The Poetics and Politics of Family Feelings“
03.-05.07.2024, Lyrik Kabinett and Siemens Stiftung Munich. In cooperation with the research training group 2845 „Family Matters – Figuren der Ent-bindung.“ With keynotes by Elisabeth Bronfen, Elahe Haschemi Yekani, and Rebecca Wanzo.
Find the full program here.
Laura Hindelang (Universität Bern): „Exploring Nostalgia and Belonging in Architecture and Urban Visual Culture of the Arabian Peninsula“
17.06.2024, 14.15 p.m., room C 601, Bismarckstr. 1, 91054 Erlangen
Clara Dawson (Global Sentimentality Project Fellow): „Sentimental Narratives: Taxidermy, Museums, and Poetry in the 19th Century“
29.05.2024, 10.15 a.m., room C 601, Bismarckstr. 1, 91054 Erlangen
Manuel Vogelsang (Global Sentimentality Project Fellow): „Revisiting the Archive, Excessively! Melodrama, Excess, and the Archive of the American Imaginary“
24.04.2024, 10.15 a.m., room C 601, Bismarckstr. 1, 91054 Erlangen
New Publication!
Elsa-Margareta Venzmer’s article „Ineffable Husbands. Sentimental Queerbaiting in the TV Series Good Omens“ was published in March 2024 in the latest ffk Journal.
Theresa Nink (SFB Transformationen des Populären/Siegen): „Kuschelrock als Low Pop? Sentimentale Balladen in populärer Musik“
05.02.2024, 2.15 p.m., room C601, Bismarckstr.1, 91054 Erlangen
Anna-Rose Shack (Global Sentimentality Project Fellow): „“She is the first sentimental writer in the English Language”: Katherine Philips’ nineteenth-century reception and the sentimental tradition“
24.01.2024, 10.15 a.m., room C 601, Bismarckstr.1, 91054 Erlangen
Global Melodrama – Das Melodram im Weltkino: Season 4 at Filmhaus Nürnberg!
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain, 1988) – 16.10.2023, with an introduction by Rama Srinivasan (Global Sentimentality Project)
Tokyo Story (Japan, 1953) – 30.10.2023, with an introduction by Alexander Knoth (Japancuts.de)
Suffragette (GB, 2015) – 11.12.2023, with an introduction by Sarah Miriam Pritz (GRK 2726)
Coming Out (GDR, 1989) – 15.01.2024, with an introduction by Theresa Siebach (GRK 2726)
An Unmarried Woman (USA, 1978) – 05.02.2024, with an introduction by Florian Mundhenke (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Robert Tsaturyan (Global Sentimentality Project Fellow): „Trauma, Politics, and the ‚Aesopic Language‘ in Contemporary Chinese Poetic Thought“
21.11.2023, Room 00.112, Artilleriestraße 70, 91052 Erlangen
Elsa-Margareta Venzmer: „Sentimentale Abhängigkeiten zwischen FernsehproduzentIn und Fan: Zum Verhältnis von Queerbaiting, Affekt und Fandom“
30.09.2023, Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, „Abhängigkeiten“. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
Conference: Sentimental State(s) – Sentimental Politics of Order and Belonging
September 20-22, 2023, Alte Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen
Find the full program here.
Panel: „Sentimental Songs as Political Interventions“
Siegen University, September 13-14, 2023.
Heike Paul, Hana Vrdoljak and Andrew Wildermuth will present their research on „Sentimental Songs as Political Interventions“ at the conference „‚You are beautiful, no matter what they say.‘ Sentimental Ballads in Popular Music“ organized by the SFB 1472 „Transformationen des Populären.“
New Publication!
The second book in transcript’s Global Sentimentality book series was published in July 2023: To the Last Drop: Affective Economies of Extraction and Sentimentality, edited by Axelle Germanaz, Daniela Gutiérrez Fuentes, Heike Paul, and Sarah Marak. The volume is available with open access here. With contributions from Cara Daggett, Katie Ritson, Gesa Mackenthun, Heike Paul, Sarah Marak & Axelle Germanaz, among others.
Guest lecture: Johannes Salim Ismaiel-Wendt (U of Hildesheim): „Translating Sonic Orientalism: Schwer mit den Schätzen des Orients in Westfalen beladen“
17.07.2023, 2.15 p.m., Bismarckstr. 1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Guest lecture: Weihong Bao (UC Berkeley): „The Productivity of Life: Shanghai Film Studio in the 1930s“
12.07.2023, 2.15 p.m., Bismarckstr. 1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Guest lecture: Melanie Sindelar (University of Vienna): “Replicating Exclusion through Art: Belonging, Sentimentality, and Navigating Temporary Eternities among Dubai’s Artists”
10.07.2023, 2.15 p.m., Bismarckstr. 1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Guest lecture: Ruth Barratt-Peacock and Sophia Staite (FSU Jena, U of Tasmania; GSP Fellows): „The Forbidden Affects of Children’s Melodrama in Japanese Superhero Franchise Kamen Rider.“
05.07.2023, 10.15 a.m., Bismarckstr.1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Guest lecture: Katy Hull (GSP Fellow; U of Amsterdam): „‚Raging Energy for the Fight‘: Anger and Activism in Angela Davis’s Autobiography“
03.07.2023, 2.15 p.m., Bismarckstr. 1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Guest lecture: Ana Mateos (GSP Fellow): „The Rhetorics of Grief in The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (1831): An Analysis of its Different Constructions and Meanings“
17.05.2023, 10.15 a.m., Bismarckstr 1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Guest lecture: Anthony J. Obst (GSP Fellow; FU Berlin): „Scottsboro Sentimentalism and the Problem of Innocence“
10.05.2023, 10.15 a.m., Bismarckstr. 1, Erlangen (room C 601)
Global Melodrama – Das Melodram im Weltkino: Season 3 at Filmhaus Nürnberg!
Casablanca (USA, 1947) – 17.04.2023, with an introduction by Kay Kirchmann
Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse (BRD, 1984) – 15.05.2023, with an introduction by Stefanie Diekmann
In the Mood for Love (HK, F, TH, 2000) – 12.06.2023, with an introduction by Norbert Schmitz
Rafiki (Kenia, 2018) – 10.07.2023, with an introduction by Claudia Böhme
Katharina Gerund: „Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?“
05.04.2023, Filmhaus Nürnberg. Screening of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with an introduction by Katharina Gerund.
Heike Paul, „Zur Deutungsmacht des Sentimentalen in Zukunftsnarrativen“
30.03.2023, 8.30 a.m. Talk at the final conference of the DFG-funded research training group „Deutungsmacht. Religion und belief systems in Deutungsmachtkonflikten“ titled „Deutungsmacht von Zukunftsnarrativen.“ Rostock University.
New publication!
Antonia Thies and Thomas Demmelhuber published their paper „Autocracies and the temptation of sentimentality: repertoires of the past and contemporary meaning-making in the Gulf monarchies“ in Third World Quarterly (2023). The article is available online; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2023.2171392.
Guest lecture: Nele Sawallisch (Trier U): „Comedy, Nation, Sentimentality. Civil Sentimentalism and the Politics of Laughter“
01.02.23, 10.15 a.m. (C 301). To register please send an email to project-sentimental@fau.de.
Guest lecture: Rama Srinivasan: „Love, Longing and Affective Attachments in the South Asian Diaspora“
18.01.23, 10.15 a.m. (C 301). To register please send an email to project-sentimental@fau.de.
Guest lecture: Frank Kelleter (John-F.-Kennedy-Institut, FU Berlin): „Civic Indignation, 1765-1825: On the Rhetoric of White Liberal Self-Sentimentalization“
16.01.23, 14.15 p.m. (C 601). To register please send an email to project-sentimental@fau.de.
Kay Kirchmann & Elsa-Margareta Venzmer: „‚We‘re partners. What happens to you,
happens to me.‘ Buddies im Spielfilm.“
16.01.22, 6p.m., Ringvorlesung „Interdisziplinäre Zugänge zu Freundschaft zwischen Gleichheit und Differenz II. Kollegienhaus 1.019, Universitätsstraße 15, Erlangen.
Guest lecture: Christian Junge (Marburg): „Affective Readings! The Scandals of Aswany’s Bestseller ‚The Yacoubian Building‘ from Literary Text to Social Media“
21.11.22, 2p.m.
Global Melodrama Film Series, season II
Our film series in cooperation with the Filmhaus Nürnberg continues in the winter term of 2022 with 5 films from around the globe:
Garm Hava (India, 1974) – 24.10.2022, with an introduction by Rama Srinivasan
Ganga Bruta (Brazil, 1933) – 14.11.2022, with an introduction by Ana M. López
You’ve Got Mail (USA, 1998) – 12.12.2022, with an introduction by Silke Steets
Hiroshima Mon Amour (France, 1959) – 16.01.2023, with an introduction by Axelle Germanaz
Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad (India, 2001) – 06.02.2023, with an introduction by Mita Banerjee
Workshop: Civil Sentimentalism in the Americas
09.11. – 11.11. 2022, Amerikahaus Munich
Organized by the Global Sentimentality Project (FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg) and the Amerika–Institute (LMU München) in cooperation with the Bavarian American–Academy. Read a student review of the conference here.
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series no. III
01.06.2022, 10 a.m.: Deidre Pribram (GSP Fellow, Molloy College): „Sentimentality and Sensationalism: Screening Melodrama“
29.06.2022, 10 a.m.: Claudia Breger (Columbia U): „Anti–Sentimental Animations: Watchmen’s (2019) Archival Politics in the Folds of Supremacist Revival and Institutional Repair“
13.07.2022, 10 a.m.: James A. Godley (GSP Fellow, Dartmouth College): „The Alienated Labor of Mourning: Mary Rowlandson and the Death of King Philip“
Global Melodrama – Das Melodram im Weltkino: Film series in cooperation with the Filmhaus Nürnberg
The film series Global Melodrama – Das Melodram im Weltkino presents 10 melodramas, from classical Hollywood to contemporary melodrama, and from different cultural contexts. The films will be shown in original language versions with either German or English subtitles at the Filmhaus Nürnberg on eight evenings, between May 20th and June 23rd. Most screenings will be accompanied by a short introductory talk given by renowned experts and members of the Global Sentimentality Project. For the full program and more information read the full program here.
„Sentimentalität erfahren – Experiencing Sentimentality“
The event at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2022 was organized by Global Sentimentality Project member and PI in the RTG, Kay Kirchmann. It was based on films and installations made by students in Prof. Kirchmann’s seminar „Tränen/Tears“. With the participation of Christian Krug, Axelle Germanaz, and Marc Matten, among others.
Christian Krug, “The Sentimental Disposition of (Popular) Trans- and Posthumanism”
20.05. 2022, 10:45h. Research Conference Posthuman Encounters: Desires, Fears, and the Uncanny (19-21 May 2022), Saarland University, Saarbrücken
Out Now: Lexicon of Global Melodrama
This new go-to reference book, edited by Heike Paul, Sarah Marak, Katharina Gerund and Marius Henderson, assembles contributions on global melodrama by experts from a wide range of disciplines, including cultural studies, film and media studies, gender and queer studies, political science, and postcolonial studies. The melodramas covered in this volume range from early 20th-century silent movies to contemporary films, from independent ‚arthouse‘ productions to Hollywood blockbusters. The comprehensive overview of global melodramatic film in the Lexicon constitutes a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners of film, teachers, film critics and anyone who is interested in the past and present of melodramatic film on a global scale. The Lexicon of Global Melodrama includes essays on All That Heaven Allows, Bombay, Casablanca, Die Büchse der Pandora, In the Mood for Love, Nosotros los Pobres, Terra Sonambula, and Tokyo Story.
Christian Krug, “A Night at the Theatre: Cultural Practices of Late 18th- and Early 19th-Century Melodrama”
21.04.2022, 10:15h. Guest lecture, Department of Languages and Literature, University of Basel (Switzerland)
Siblers DenkRäume – Heike Paul in conversation with the Bavarian Secretary of Arts and Sciences
In the latest episode of the secretary’s podcast „Siblers Denkräume“ (08.02.2022) Heike Paul talked about „Chancen und Grenzen öffentlicher Emotion: Zur Lage der politischen und sozialen Kultur in den USA“.
09.11.2021, 19.00h: Anger, Empathy, and Pathos: The Making of Collective Feelings.
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series II: „Affective Landscapes“
Our virtual lecture series continued in cooperation with Mirja Lecke (University of Regensburg) in the winter term 2021/22.
Read the full program here. To register for the series or single talks please write to project-sentimental@fau.de.
The lecture series sets out to examine “affective landscapes” (a concept used in literary and cultural studies, for instance by Berberich et al.) in their specific historical, cultural, and socio-political contexts. It aims to connect the paradigm of “affect studies” (Clough, Gregg & Seigworth) in the humanities and social sciences at large to the scholarship around the various dimensions and meanings of “landscape” and “region.” Case studies will be concerned with fictional landscapes of belonging, “haunted” places of past suffering, and material geographies of neglect and despair. How do feelings constitute and permeate landscapes – real and imagined? How do they move and linger between specific spatial constellations? And how can concepts such as “critical regionalism” (Herr, Powell) and “crossmapping” (Bronfen) help us understand and analyze specific cultural synergies and dissonances? In a comparative perspective, we seek to exemplarily define and discuss “affective landscapes” in and across regions in scenarios of belonging and alienation – and many nuances in between.
Jennifer Ladino (U of Idaho): Sites of Pride and Sites of Shame: Landscapes, Affective Dissonance, and Commemorating Asian Histories in the U.S. West
Lecture Series II, 21.10.2021
Roma Sendyka (U of Kraków): Landscapes of Fear: Remembering Manhunts in Post-Holocaust Communities
Lecture Series II, 4.11.2021
Donald Pease (Dartmouth College): Resentment and Ressentiment: at the Limits to Civic Sentimentalism in Suzan-Lori Parks’ The Book of Grace
Lecture Series II, 2.12.2021; cancelled
Dorota Kołodziejczyk (U of Wrocław): Olga Tokarczuk’s Cosmopolitan Silesian Landscape
Lecture Series II, 16.12.2021
Ana M. López (Tulane U): The Affective Landscape in Latin American Cinema: Nostalgia por la luz (2010)
Lecture Series II, 13.01.2022; cancelled
Ilia Kukulin (HSE University, Moscow): Postindustrial Melancholia: Contemporary Russia’s Suburban Landscapes in Dmitry Garichev’s Poetry
Lecture Series II, 27.01.2022
Heike Paul, „American Civil Sentimentalism, Past and Present„
26.10., 17.00h, at the Colloquium of the Center for the History of Emotions, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung. Online.
29.09.-01.10.2021: Virtual Workshop „Sentimental Extraction“
Even though it is well established that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels are a major motor of climate change, modern societies continue to rely on them. Debates about the perseverance of coal, oil, and gas are often centered on financial profitability and socio-economic benefits, reflecting the unwavering power of “fossil capital” (Andreas Malm). However, there is also a cultural dimension that reinforces societies’ “devotion, even love” (Stephanie LeMenager) to fossil resources. This three-day workshop sets out to untangle the links between fossil fuel extraction, gender, and sentimentality and aims at analyzing how cultural narratives make use of the sentimental mode to promote or challenge extractivism.
Keynote speakers: Cara Daggett (Virginia Tech), Macarena Gómez-Barris (Pratt Institute), and Sarah Jaquette Ray (Humboldt State University).
Read the full program here.
The workshop is generously funded by the Office of Equality and Diversity (FAU) and organized by Axelle Germanaz, Daniela Gutierrez, and Sarah Marak.
Heike Paul: „Civil Sentimentalism and its Discontent“
Inaugural Lecture in the MALS Distinguished Lectureship. Dartmouth College (Zoom), 14.07.2021, 22.00h (MEZ)
Marius Henderson: „An das ‚Ungedachte‘ rühren: Anti-Blackness, Afro-Pessimismus und zeitgenössische Kunst und Literatur“
The talk is part of the lecture series “Differenz_gestalten.” Folkwang University of the Arts, 18.00h, online, 06.07.2021
„Mächtige Gefühle“ – Heike Paul im Gespräch mit Ute Frevert (Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung)
12.05.2021, 18 Uhr. Die Veranstaltung findet über Zoom statt. Anmeldungen gerne an project-sentimental@fau.de.
„Mächtige Gefühle“: Ein Gespräch mit Ute Frevert über Angst, Liebe und Wut
Die Emotionshistorikerin Ute Frevert spricht mit Heike Paul über die Bedeutung von Gefühlen in Politik und Gesellschaft. Dabei werden konkrete Gefühlsäußerungen beleuchtet und analysiert – ihre Formen und Funktionen in unterschiedlichen historischen Situationen und in der Gegenwart. Wie werden Affekte und Emotionen zum Ausdruck gebracht und von wem? Welche Macht haben öffentliche Gefühle? Wie verbinden sich emotionale Codes mit gesellschaftspolitischen Anliegen und politischer Mobilisierung? Und wo liegen die Grenzen der Emotionalisierung (bzw. Sentimentalisierung) von Politik und politischer Programmatik? Am Beispiel ausgewählter Gefühlswörter – Angst, Liebe und Wut – werden diese und weitere Fragen erörtert.
New Publication:
Heike Paul. Amerikanischer Staatsbürgersentimentalismus. Zur Lage der politischen Kultur der USA (Wallstein Verlag, 2021)
„Das Sentimentale in der amerikanischen politischen Kultur mag konjunkturellen Schwankungen unterliegen, ist aber seit der Gründung der USA ein fest etabliertes Muster zur Erzeugung von öffentlichem Gefühl und 
Gemeinschaft. Dabei war das verstärkte Auftreten des Sentimentalen in der US-amerikanischen Geschichte stets ein Symptom für politische Krisen und damit einhergehende Krisen der politischen Kommunikation. Dennoch hat sich der Staatsbürgersentimentalismus für amerikanische Staatslenker und Protestbewegungen gleichermaßen bewährt. Die Präsidentschaft Donald Trumps stellt eine eklatante Abkehr von den Konventionen des Staatsbürgersentimentalismus dar. Trump hat immer wieder bewiesen, dass ihm Zeichen der Empathie, des Mitleids, der Trauer fremd sind. Zahlreiche Beispiele zeigen jedoch, dass Amerikanerinnen und Amerikaner in ihrem zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagement den Staatsbürgersentimentalismus in öffentlichen Artikulationen von Trauer, Mitleid und Sorge weiterhin bemühen. Nicht erst seit dem letzten Wahlkampf ist allerdings überdeutlich, dass Mitgefühl und affektive Identifikation nicht mehr hinreichend sind, um die tiefgreifenden gesellschaftlichen Polarisierungen im Land zu überbrücken.“
Eine Rezension des Buches in der Sendung „Andruck – Das Magazin für Politische Literatur“ des Deutschlandfunks findet sich hier.
Lecture and Symposium: „Affective Worldmaking: Narrative Counterpublics of Gender and Sexuality„, 14.01.2021-15.01.2021
The Elisabeth-List Fellowship Research Group „Intimate Readings“ organized a lecture by affect scholar Ann Cvetkovich (Carleton University, Ottawa) and a symposium with (among others) Heike Paul, Claudia Breger, and Jana Aresin. The events were co-organized by FAU and Karl-Franzens-University Graz (KFU). Find the program here.
The „Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I“: 12.11.2020 – 04.02.2021
A virtual lecture series in the winter term 2020/21 with scholars from different disciplines and from around the globe. Read the full program here.
Annika McPherson (Augsburg University): Nostalgia, Sentimentality, and the Melodramatic Mode: Conceptualizing Netflix in/and the Global South
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 04.02.2021
Marc Matten (FAU): „Strong Leaders, Strong Nation? Notions of Nostalgia in the Political Culture of Modern China“
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 21.01.2021
Danai Mupotsa (University of the Witwatersrand): „The Agreement“
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 07.01.2021
Simon Strick (FU Berlin): „Sentimental Fascists? The Affectice Collectives of Digital Neofascism“
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 10.12.2020
Elisabeth Bronfen (University of Zürich): „Pandemic Sentimentality: Outbreak Narratives and the American Cultural Imaginary“
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 26.11.2020
Elisabeth Anker (George Washington University): „Ugly Freedoms: Disappointment, Despair, and Political Agency“
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 19.11.2020
Mark Kelley (Florida International University): „Alone, Together. Feeling Through 19th-Century Sailors in Eras of Global Isolation“
Global Sentimentality Lecture Series I, 12.11.2020
Marius Henderson: „Crisis and Continuity: Spectra of Suffering in Contemporary Experimental North American Poetry“
Guest lecture at the DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies “Russian-Language Poetry in Transition.” University of Trier, 05.02.2020.
Kay Kirchmann: „Weinen im Kino“
Talk at „Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften“, Erlangen, 19.10.2019
Heike Paul: „World Literature? American Sentimentalism in a Transcultural Perspective“
Talk delivered at the German-Japanese DFG-Symposium „Cultures in Translation: World History – World History – World Society. Germany, Japan, and the World in Transcultural Comparison,“ University of Tokyo, 9.10. – 11.10., 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. [PDF]
Christian Krug: „Sentimentale und gebrochene Helden Shakespeares: Altes und Neues von Romeo, Julia, Richard und Prinzessin Diana“
The talk is part of the lecture series „Strahlende Helden – Gebrochene Helden. Heldenbilder im Wandel der Zeit“.
16.15h, Bismarckstraße 1, Room C601, 24.07.2019.
Claudia Breger (Columbia University, NYC): „With A Sentimental Touch? High-Affect Aesthetics in Contemporary European Cinema“
The talk is part of the American Studies research colloquium.
10.15h, Bismarkstraße 1, Room C603, 03.07.2019.
Doris Feldmann and Christian Krug: „Sentimentales, Heroisches und Männliches in filmischen Repräsentationen der britischen Arbeiterklassen, 1960-2000“
18.00h, KH 1.019, Universitätsstr. 15, Erlangen, 08.07.2019.
Emmy-Noether-Vorlesung 2019
Heike Paul, „Tränen für Melania, Rosen für Nancy? Sentimentalismus und Politik in den USA.“
18.00 Uhr s.t., Senatssaal Kollegienhaus, Erlangen, 27.06.2019.
US TV Series Discussions: American Nostalgia
11.04.2019 – 06.06.2019 at the DAI (Nürnberg) and the vhs Club International (Erlangen)
Katharina Gerund, Peter Maurits, and Stephen Koetzing explore and discuss nostalgia in
contemporary American TV series such as Mad Men, Westworld, and The Americans.
Panel at the 2019 BAA Summer Academy: „Global Sentimentality“
29.05.2019, 10.00-12.00, at the DAI Nuremberg
Chair: Heike Paul
Katharina Gerund: „Home Front Sentimentality: Military Spouses in Contemporary TV Series“
Kathy-Ann Tan: „Disidentifying (with) the State: Decolonial Aesthetics and its Affective Entanglements“
„Tränen“ – Student exhibition organized by Kay Kirchmann
21. Internationales Figurentheaterfestival Erlangen, May 24 – June 2, 2019 and Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften, 19.10.2019.
Villa Vigoni Dialogue: „Civil Religion and Civil Sentimentalism: Cultural and Political Imaginaries of Order and Belonging“
13.3. – 16.3. 2019, Villa Vigoni
organized by Heike Paul with Donatella Izzo (Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”) and Margaretha Schweiger-Wilhelm (BAA)
Talk and Workshop: Rebecca Wanzo (Washington University, St.Louis): „Civil Rights Sentimentality“
13.12. 2018, 18.00 c.t., room A602, Bismarckstraße 1, 91054 Erlangen.
Kantorowicz Lecture by Heike Paul: „Staatsbürgersentimentalismus, American Style“
In October 2018 Heike Paul gave the „Kantorowicz Lecture in Political Language“ at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt.
Find the full lecture here.
Publication: „Sentimentalism“
by Katharina Gerund and Heike Paul
published in: Handbook of the American Novel of the Nineteenth Century.
Ed. Christine Gerhardt. Berlin/München/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2018. 17-33.
International Conference: Public Feeling in Global Contexts
9.4. – 10.4. 2016, Alte Universitätsbibliothek, Erlangen
organized by Katharina Gerund and Heike Paul
Following a broader ‘turn to affect’ (Patricia Clough) in the humanities and the social sciences, this conference set out to investigate public feeling – as articulation, representation, and cultural and institutional practice – and the various functions it has in every-day life, in political communication, in allegedly private realms as well as in constructions of “intimate public spheres” (Lauren Berlant). The conference brought together scholars from different disciplines (sociology, literary studies, political science, art history, and media studies) to discuss the changing cultural specificities and the global impact of “affective economies” (Sara Ahmed) and “feeling rules” (Arlie Hochschild) in a framework of transnational and comparative cultural studies. In the course of our two-day conference, we addressed phenomena such as a post-9/11 political culture and its repertoire of affects; strategies/processes of (political) inclusion and exclusion via affective protocols; fear, anger, and (romantic) love as, purportedly, global “structures of feeling” (Raymond Williams); the (re)turn to/of aesthetics and affect in contemporary (popular) culture and art; and the role of affect for contemporary protest movements and political opposition. From the various cultural and disciplinary angles involved, we shed light on the ways in which public feeling-scholarship extends – and still needs to be extended further – beyond its current US-centered, Euro-American framework. Topics included how affects and emotions impact individual and collective identity formation in the age of globalization; how affect and feeling are entangled with cultural difference and constructions of otherness, and what kind of political work they perform in every-day situations and in ‘states of exception’.