Transcultural Dynamics of Canonical Texts and Political Ideas between Europe, Africa and Asia

Workshop May 30th 2023. Bischofsvilla, Konstanz. Organized by the NOMIS-Research Project „Traveling Forms“ and the Dr. K. H. Eberle Research Centre "European Cultures in a Multipolar World"

Long regarded as canonical elements of the European artistic and literary tradition, both classical Greek tragedy and the aesthetic and political avant-gardes have in recent decades been increasingly viewed as globalized cultural formations which are constantly re-actualized and rewritten in processes of circulation, adaptation, and exchange. Once we have begun to understand both of these phenomena as products of transcultural co-creation, ‘Europe’ can no longer claim a privileged position in studying the global dynamics which nowadays animate their ‘life’.

This workshop will highlight two contexts of transcultural exchange; the rewriting of the drama of classical antiquity in more recent African literary adoptions and theater productions; and the evolution of the concept of the avant-garde and its artistic and political significance in literary transculturations between the Chinese-Sinophone and Anglo-European worlds during the long twentieth century. Rather than merely decentering established Eurocentric takes on the histories of classical tragedy and the avant-garde movement, our two speakers – Prof. Mark Fleishman (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Dr. Fangdai Chen (Lingnan University of Hong Kong) – ask how focusing on processes of intercultural adaptation ultimately challenges Eurocentric claims of universality and exemplarity. Both shed light on a transcultural, “post-centric” situation and inquire into the continued existence of aesthetic forms once considered to be ‘canonically European’ in a multipolar world. The workshop also aims at exploring theoretical and methodological means for the conceptualization and analysis of these dynamics, particularly in intertextuality studies and transnational intellectual history.

Program

15:00 – 15:10

Juliane Vogel, Albert Dikovich (University of Constance): Introductory remarks

15:10 – 16:40

Mark Fleishman (University of Cape Town): Reimagining European Tragedy from the Global South

Moderation: Juliane Vogel

17:00 – 18:30

Fangdai Chen (Lignan University of Hong Kong): When European Existentialism Meets Chinese Revolutionism in America

Moderation: Albrecht Koschorke (University of Constance)

18:45 – 19:30 Closing Discussion