Unsettling Communities: Minor, Minority and Small Literatures in Europe

Following on from a successful cross-language and cross-culture symposium held in October 2015 (‘Interpreting Communities: Minority Writing in European Literary Fields’), this conference will focus on the comparative study of content, form, status, and reception of ‘minority’ writing in Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries. It aims to offer a continent-spanning consideration of writers and writing from small communities in Europe. By building upon and challenging Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘minor’ literature and other aligned theories, the conference aims to find new ways of analysing texts produced by writers who have been ascribed ‘minority’ status and will explore the aesthetic and political power of literature to represent, re-formulate and shape communities.

Keynote speakers: Peter Morgan (Sydney) and Stefan Willer (Berlin)
Reading and conversation with award-winning author Barbara Honigmann