Narratology in the Age of Interdisciplinary Narrative Research (Call f

Papers are invited for the Inaugural Symposium of the Center for Narrative Research at Wuppertal University, Germany, 25-26 June, 2007
The significance of narrative as a cognitive and communicative tool used to make sense of the world by creating personal and cultural identities or relating the present to the past and future is increasingly recognized in a variety of disciplines, ranging from literary studies and linguistics to anthropology, sociology, psychology, historiography and business studies, to name but a few. The growing interdisciplinary interest in narrative and storytelling, however, has so far not led to a convergence of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches: Far from developing a 'lingua franca' for interdisciplinary discussions of narrative, the numerous studies of stories and storytelling in recent years seem to have contributed to a 'Babelisation' of narrative studies. This situation raises a number of questions which the contributions to the symposium will explore:
- What are the differences or similarities between (the analysis of) non-fictional and fictional storytelling?
- To what degree have the various disciplinary approaches to narrative acknowledged each other's findings? Do they proceed from the same premises?
- Can the terminology developed by narratological approaches to fiction serve as the basis for an interdisciplinary lingua franca in narrative research? Or is fictional narrative significantly different from non-fictional story-telling?
- How can (literary) narratology benefit from concepts and methods proposed by narrative researchers in other disciplines? Might the insights of narrative psychology, for instance, help to further shape the approach known as 'cognitive narratology'?
- Can 'narrative' and 'storytelling' function as 'travelling concepts'
(Mieke Bal), facilitating interdisciplinary communication?
- Is there any common ground between hermeneutic, narratological and empirical methods of describing, analysing and interpreting narrative(s)?
We welcome contributions both from literary scholars and from narrative researchers in other disciplines. There will be keynote lectures by David Herman (Project Narrative, Ohio State University) and Bo Pettersson (Department of English, University of Helsinki). Please submit proposals for a 20-minute paper to Roy Sommer at rsommer@uni-wuppertal.de by February 15, 2007. Proposals should include both an abstract (150-250 words) and a short biographical note. All submissions will be considered for a prospective volume on the topic.
Prof. Dr. Roy Sommer
University of Wuppertal
English and American Studies
Gaussstrasse 20
D-42119 Wuppertal
Germany
E-mail: rsommer@uni-wuppertal.de