The Avant-Garde and the Jews
2-4 February 2015
University of Antwerp, Hof van Liere
Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen
In the last decade, a number of studies in various disciplines have addressed the role of Jewish topics and motifs taken from the Judaic tradition, Jewish avant-garde movements, and Jewish artists belonging to the avant-garde. However, today the phenomenon as such still remains largely uncharted even though the level of participation by Jewish avant-garde artists in literature, visual arts, theatre and film has been strikingly high. In literature, Jewish involvement in the avant-garde covers not only avant-garde texts produced in Jewish languages (Yiddish, Hebrew) but also works in other languages by artists of Jewish descent. The reasons for the considerable impact of Jewish artists within avant-garde movements were varied, as were the ways in which the Jewish origin of these artists manifests itself in their work.
This conference will deal with the significance of the avant-garde(s) for modern Jewish culture and the impact of the Jewish tradition on the artistic production of the avant-garde, be they reinterpretations of literary, artistic, philosophical or theological texts/traditions, or novel theoretical openings linked to elements from Judaism or Jewish culture, thought, or history.
Keynote speakers:
Prof. dr. Steven Aschheim (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Prof. dr. Mark Gelber (Ben Gurion University)
Prof. dr. Alfred Bodenheimer (University of Basel)
With the support of Universiteit & Samenleving (University of Antwerp)
Program
Monday 2 February 2015
11.00-12.00 Registration
12.00-12.30 Welcome and Introduction
12.30-13.30 Lunch (speakers only)
13.30-15.00 Session I: Avant-Garde and Tradition (Chair: Alfred Bodenheimer)
Radu Stern (independent curator): Jews and the Avant-Garde: The
Case of Romania
Birgit M. Körner (Justus-Liebig-University): Avant-Garde Midrash:
Else Lasker-Schüler's Hebrew Ballads and Cultural Zionism as Part of
the Avant-Garde Movement
Sami Sjöberg (University of Helsinki): The Controversy Regarding
"Jewish Essence" in German-Jewish Avant-Garde
15.00-16.00 Session II: Transnationalism (Chair: Dennis Baert)
Zoë Roth (Durham University): The Transnational Imagination:
Race, Nation, and the Jews of the Francophone Avant-Gardes
Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia (Nicolaus Copernicus University): Saints
and Tzaddikim: The Religious Syncretism of Jewish Expressionism
19.00 Keynote Steven Aschheim (Hebrew University of Jerusalem):
The Avant-Garde and the Jews
followed by a reception
Tuesday 3 February 2015
09.30-11.00 Session III: Interreligious Dialogues (Chair: David Dessin)
Dávid Szolláth (University of Pécs): Modernism and Jewishness in
Hungary—Two Examples
György C. Kálmán (Hungarian Academy of Sciences): The Non-Jewish
Jewish Avant-Garde in Hungary
Benoît Bondroit (University of Leeds): “253 I Might as well Look
Shagetz as much as Jew”: Louis Zukofsky and the Paradox of Cultural
Assimilation
11.00-11.15 Coffee
11.15-12.45 Session IV: Jewish Literature and Philosophical Reflections (Chair:
Sami Sjöberg)
Olivier Salazar-Ferrer (University of Glasgow): Reflections on the Role
of Judaism in Benjamin Fondane's Existential Poetics
Andreas Kramer (Goldsmiths University of London): Carl Einstein,
Jewishness and the Communities of the European Avant-Garde
Catrinel Popa (Bucharest University): Experience and Experiment in
Max Blecher’s and H. Bonciu’s Novels
12.45-13.45 Lunch (speakers only)
13.45-15.15 Session V: Yiddish and Hebrew Avant-Gardes (Chair: Mark Gelber)
Aviv Livnat (Tel Aviv University/ Bezalel Art Academy): The
Avant-Garde of Statics
Laëtitia Tordjman (Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3): The Yiddish Avant-
Garde, a Literary “Third Space”: The Example of Khaliastra
Ari Ofengenden (George Washington University): Between the Law
and the Real: On Creating a Cultural Space for Hebrew Modernism
15.15-15.30 Coffee
15.30-16.45 Keynote Alfred Bodenheimer (University of Basel): Dada Judaism.
Avant-Garde in WWI Zurich
18.00 Conference dinner (speakers only)
Wednesday 4 February 2015
09.30-09.45 Coffee
09.45-11.45 Session VI: Cultural Policies (Chair: Steven Aschheim)
Rudolf Klein (Szent István University): Mapping Jewish Influence on
the Architectural Avant-Garde
Mirjam Rajner (Bar-Ilan University): Sarajevo’s Jewish Intellectuals
and the Collegium Artisticum
Raphael Koenig (Harvard University): The Mad Book: Authorship,
Outsider Strategies and Jewish Tradition in Der Nister’s From my
Estates
Alexandru Bar (University of Bucharest): The Jewish Culture and the
Politics of National Unification in Greater Romania
11.45-12.45 Lunch (speakers only)
12.45-13.45 Session VII: Post-WWII Avant-Gardes (Chair: Geert Lernout)
Elizabeth Ferrell (Miami University): Wallace Berman, Kabbalah,
and Collaboration
Eszter Vilmos (University of Pécs): Motifs of Jewish Identity in the
Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde
13.45-14.00 Coffee
14.00-15.30 Keynote Mark Gelber (Ben Gurion University): The Avant-Garde
from Cultural Zionism to Israel
followed by a closing discussion
Flyer
Click here to read the flyer with detailed information on the program, the presentations and the speakers.
Registration
Click here if you would like to register for this conference (free entrance, registration required).
Accommodation
Call for papers (closed)
SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS
February 2-4, 2015, Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp
Abstract submission deadline: MAY 31 2014
Keynote speakers of the conference include: Steven Aschheim & TBA
In the last decade, a number of studies in various disciplines have addressed the role of Jewish topics and motifs taken from the Judaic tradition, Jewish avant-garde movements, and Jewish artists belonging to the avant-garde. However, today the phenomenon as such still remains largely uncharted even though the level of participation by Jewish avant-garde artists in literature, visual arts, theatre and film has been strikingly high. (According to some accounts, over half of the Expressionist poets were of Jewish origin). In literature, Jewish involvement in the avant-garde covers not only avant-garde texts produced in Jewish languages (Yiddish, Hebrew) but also works in other languages by artists of Jewish descent. The reasons for the considerable impact of Jewish artists within avant-garde movements were varied, as were the ways in which the Jewish origin of these artists manifests itself in their work. In addition to diverse case studies, more general questions regarding the analysis of the phenomena can be addressed: How can Jewish Studies and avant-garde studies benefit from each other as interdisciplinary fields that complement each other’s methodological repertoire? What kind of new historical and theoretical perspectives does this approach open in regard to the Jewish artistic, literary and cultural production on the one hand, and a better understanding of the avant-garde on the other?
The conference The Avant-Garde and the Jews welcomes contributions on the significance of the avant-garde(s) for modern Jewish culture and the impact of the Jewish tradition on the artistic production of the avant-garde, be they reinterpretations of literary, artistic, philosophical or theological texts/traditions, or novel theoretical openings linked to elements from Judaism or Jewish culture, thought, or history.
Proposals may address themes such as the following:
° How did the presence and impact of Jewish artists differ among the various avant-garde movements and periods, and how have Jewish artists been regarded by their fellow artists in the various movements?
° How does the Jewish input in the avant-garde renegotiate the relation between religion and secularity?
° How was the contact between tradition and the ideas of novelty and the ‘modern’ manifested in the avant-garde by Jewish artists?
° In what ways does Judaism figure in the avant-gardist works of Jewish artists? How have motifs from different strands in the Jewish tradition found their way into the avant-garde?
° (How) do the texts by Jews involved in the avant-garde document and comment on the state of Judaism at the time they were produced and/or today?
° How do Yiddish and Hebrew avant-garde movements relate to each other and to other avant-garde movements in which Jewish participation was significant?
The organisers welcome proposals for contributions in English (max. 300 words, for a 20 minute paper + 10 minute discussion time). The abstract and a short bio-bibliography should be e-mailed to jan.morrens@uantwerpen.be BEFORE MAY 31ST 2014.