Organised by Agnieszka Hudzik (Freie Universität Berlin), Jorge Estrada (Berlin), Patricia Gwozdz (Universität Potsdam), Joanna Moszczynska (Universität Regensburg).

The literary entanglements between Latin America and East Central Europe from the 20th century to the present are politically, culturally, and literarily diverse, but never random: Critical examinations of terms such as »post-imperial«, »marginal«, or »peripheral« are reflected in their respective intellectual fields and literary productions that negotiate transatlantic »elective affinities«, while competing for recognition within the history of world literature. 

The international conference explores literary history, poetics, intellectual networks, and aesthetic theory on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The participating scholars will discuss the situatedness of the literatures and actors of the regions and reflect on their transcultural and transareal convivialities. 

Programme

Wednesday, 26 October 2022

14:00-14:30 | Welcome & Introduction

• Agnieszka Hudzik (Freie Universität Berlin), Jorge Estrada (Berlin), Patricia Gwozdz (Universität Potsdam), Joanna Moszczynska (Universität Regensburg)

14:30-16:00 | History, Literature & Politics

Chair: Jorge Estrada (Berlin)

• Guillermo Zermeño Padilla (El Colegio de México): ¿En el umbral de una nueva teoría de la historia? Algunas reflexiones desde América Latina/On the threshold of a new theory of history? Some reflections from Latin America
• Tomasz Pindel (Pedagogical University of Cracow): Central Europe reads Latin America — and vice versa? Some observations about the literary inspirations
• Tobias Rupprecht (Freie Universität Berlin): Latin American Anti-Liberals and the Kremlin. From Cold War tercermundismo to the Russian Invasion of the Ukraine

16:00-16:30 | Coffee Break

16:30-17:30 | Keynotes with Open Discussion

Chair: Agnieszka Hudzik (Freie Universität Berlin)

• Annette Werberger (Europa Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder): Literary History as Entangled History in Central and Eastern Europe
• Ottmar Ette (BBAW): TransArea and Convivence: Latin America, Europe and the World

17:30-18:00 | Open Discussion: Rethinking Entanglements & TransArea in the Era of Globalization

19:00 | Dinner

Thursday, 27 October 2022

09:30-10:30 | Beyond Conflict & Alliance?

Chair: Rebecca Seewald (Universität zu Köln)

• Anna Ratke-Majewska (University of Zielona Gora): Polish-Chilean Clash of Trauma Commemoration Culture. Narratives of Memory about the Pinochet Dictatorship in Chile and Polish Researchers. Conflict of Memories: an Account of a Research Trip – in Photographs about Commemorating
• Pablo Sánchez (Universidad de Sevilla): La alianza de los Nobel: notas sobre algunos viajes de Neruda y Asturias a los países socialistas.

10:30-11:00 | Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 | Crossing Borders, Closing Gaps I: Traveling Intellectuals

Chair: Patricia A. Gwozdz (Universität Potsdam)

• Ana Davis González (Universidad de Sevilla): Intelectuales rioplatenses en tierras soviéticas (1917-1959)
• Rodrigo García Bonillas(Potsdam/Berlin): “Tropical” Writers and the Thaw: Cultural Transfers between Latin America and the Eastern Bloc during the 1950s
• Michal Zourek (Mendel University in Brno): La Checoslovaquia comunista en los testimonios de intelectuales latinoamericanos

12:30-13:30 | Lunch

13:30-15:30 | Literature & Life Writing

Chair: Joanna Moszczyńska (Universität Regensburg)

• Aleksandra Tobiasz (Cluj-Napoca): "Between Central European burden of history and Argentinean “lightness of being” – Witold Gombrowicz’s representations of time in diaristic practice
• Víctor Manuel Sanchis Amat (Universidad de Alicante): “Sincronizar con la hora del mundo la hora de México”: escrituras de la URSS en El viaje de Luis Spota
• Geishel Curiel Martinez (Potsdam/Berlin): Viajeras en Marginalia
• José Luis Nogales Baena (Universidad de Sevilla): Víctor Manuel Villaseñor: recuerdos del futuro

15:30-16:00 | Coffee Break

16:00-17:00 | Crossing Borders, Closing Gaps II: Translations

Chair: Javier Toscano (Berlin)

• Monika Dąbrowska (Universidad Internacional de la Rioja): Difundir la literatura polaca en México y la mexicana en Polonia. Sergio Pitol como agente cultural transatlántico
• Claudio Soltmann(Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) Notes about mid-19th Century Chilean Translators of Polish Literature

17:00-18:00 | Keynote

Chair: Jorge Estrada (Berlin)

• Prof. Dr. Susanne Klengel (Freie Universität Berlin): A Problem (not only) of Art History. Invisible women artists and the issue of belonging: The case of Angelina Beloff´s creative (and tragic) passage from East to West

Friday, 28 October 2022

10:00-12:00 | Images and Imaginaria on the Move

Chair: Agnieszka Hudzik (Freie Universität Berlin) and Joanna Moszczyńska (Universität Regensburg)

• Jaša Drnovšek (Slovenia):From Periphery to Periphery. Images of Peru in the Works of Alma M. Karlin
• Robert Schade (DAAD/Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul): Oranges, Centaurs and a New Birobidjan: Brazilian Author Moacyr Scliar and Jewish Eastern Europe
• Bernhard Chappuzeau (University of West Bohemia in Pilsen): Béla Tarr and the Reception of Hungarian Film in South America
• Mónika Szente-Varga (Ludovika – University of Public Service in Budapest): The Rain God in Hungary. Impacts of the works of László Passuth on imaginary related to Mexico

12:00-12:30 | Plenum & Future Research

Protocol: Tara O’Sullivan (Freie Universität Berlin)

Organizational support: Guillermo Romero von Zeschau (Freie Universität Berlin) and Lynh Nguyen (Freie Universität Berlin)