European Literatures of Military Occupation 1938-1955

The conference aims to shed light on the literary and cultural representation of occupation as a European experience. Literary scholars from all over Europe will come together to discuss the outlines and implications of a comparative perspective on the topic. Since this is almost-uncharted territory, the conference is intended as a first step for mapping the literary representation and articulation of the experience of occupation. Differentiating between two periods of occupation – 1938-1945 (period of the heterogeneous German occupational regimes established throughout Europe) and 1945 to 1955 (period of the allied presence in Germany and Europe after the war, the death of Stalin in 1953, which changed the occupational regime of the Soviet Union in the Baltic States and the official end of the time of occupation in Western Germany through the “General Treaty” in 1952/1955) – the aim is to investigate how literary texts figure the complex and often intertwined relationship between complicity, collaboration, and resistance. It also seeks to see to what extent historical differences in the reality of occupation in various European countries are mirrored in literary texts. Finally, it endeavors to point out the role played by literary representations in the reconstitution of the (formerly) occupied countries, and the accompanying and highly debated memory politics.

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