Kuester, Martin: Recent Developments in the Study of Canadian Literature
in Germany. In: Ahornblätter. Marburger Beiträge zur Kanada-Forschung.
11. Marburg 1998.(Schriften der Universitätsbibliothek Marburg ; 84)
http://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/sum/84/sum84-2.html
Martin Kuester
Recent Developments in the Study of Canadian Literature in Germany [1]
Meine Damen und Herren, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mesdames, Mesdemoiselles,
Messieurs,
Il est un grand honneur et un grand plaisir pour moi de vous souhaiter
la bienvenue ici à Marburg au début de cette journée
de la littérature canadienne. Dans les quinze minutes à venir
je vais essayer de vous donner quelques impressions personnelles sur le
développement des études de la littérature canadienne
en Allemagne. Mais bien que je parle franVais en ce moment, je vous prie
de me permettre de m'adresser dans ce qui suit seulement à mon cadre
de spécialisation personnelle, la littérature canadienne
anglaise.
As a working title for this short talk, Chris Moss and I had agreed upon
something like "Recent Developments in the Study of Canadian Literature
in Germany." Racking my brain on what to say about this topic in fifteen
minutes or less, I remembered that several years ago, in the wake of German
re-unification, I was asked to outline for a publication that was entitled
"Canadian Studies in the German-Speaking Countries: The State of the
Art" some of my thoughts regarding the future of Canadian Literature
Studies in Germany. Looking back at what I wrote about five years ago,
the most impressive thing about my shortish three-page contribution is
probably its lengthy title - please forgive me for its hubris: I was young
then - "English-Canadian Literature Studies in the German-Speaking
Countries: New Contexts and New Horizons." Anyway, I saw changes on
three important levels influencing Canadian Literature Studies: first,
the political changes in Germany that also had their influence on the institutional
context in which Canadian Literature was and is studied in Germany; second,
the political changes that were - and still are - threatening to change
the political topography of North America; third, changes and developments
in the international field of literary theory and criticism. I will now,
if you permit me, have a look at what I saw as possible developments then
and then hint at what I think has been achieved or not achieved over the
last five years. As far as the institutional changes within Germany are
concerned, there are now several new centres of Canadian literature studies
in the new Laender, that is, the former GDR, and important and innovative
work is being done there. If you look at the most handy source of information,
which is probably the bi-annual Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für
Kanada-Studien, you can see that in addition to traditional West German
study centres such as Trier, Kiel, and Augsburg, there are now centres
of Quebec or Canadian Studies in Dresden, Leipzig and - I think - also
in Halle-Wittenberg, and Canadian Literature courses are taught regularly
at East German universities such as Greifswald, and other universities
are in the process of developing programmes of their own.
Institutional cooperation is also important on an international level,
and while I could report in 1992 that a first British-German conference
on Canadian Literature had taken place in Kiel in 1989, it was followed
by a second one at Leeds in 1992 (and its proceedings have just been published),
and last year, in 1996, there was a third conference at the University
of Greifswald, organized by Hartmut Lutz and Konrad Gross.
As far as changes of the second type are concerned, that is, changes concerning
the political development of the Canadian Confederation, European scholars,
I wrote five years ago, "have to observe the problems that arise from
the tensions between English-speaking Canada and Quebec and the way they
are reflected in the writing of Canadians." Within the context of
what Helmut Bonheim and Walter Pache have called Exo-Kanadistik, Europeans
can provide - and I guess that is still true today - Canadians with a differently
balanced outside perspective on their own country. And certainly they can
express their fear and astonishment that a country that they have come
to know and love may sometimes seem to be on the verge of breaking up.
The third field I mentioned at the beginning involves the changes and developments
in the international field of literary theory and criticism, and the place
of German students of Canadian literature within this global community.
In the field of literary theory, there have been new developments, and
much work has been done for example on Canadian literature within the context
of postcolonial literatures. I would like to mention especially the work
that is being done here by the members of the Association for the Study
of the New English Literatures in Germany at their annual conferences and
at the biennial summer schools that have been organized by and for students
interested in this field. For the last few years, there has always been
a strong Canadian participation by both writers and critics at these events.
In this context, the study of native Canadian authors becomes very important,
and in this respect, German critics have also left their mark. Hartmut
Lutz for example published an important collection of interviews with native
Canadian writers.
As far as the publications of German students of English-Canadian literature
are concerned, I had a look at the Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für
Kanada-Studien of the last four years and tried to come up with some statistical
evidence. What I found out looking at the publications listed - and this
is completely unreliable, but I hope significant nevertheless - is that
on average there have been about fifty scholarly essays published every
year by the German Canlit community, about one or two monographs per year,
and between five and ten collections of essays. Furthermore, between 15
and 20 M.A. or Staatsexamen theses were written per year, and several doctoral
and postdoctoral dissertations.
The beginner in Canadian Studies of course wants an introduction to the
country and its language and literature, and in this respect he or she
is, I think, quite well served by recent German contributions. I was amazed
that when last week an American professor teaching at a small college in
Iowa was posting her search for introductory material on Canlit on the
National Library of Canada's internet discussion list, she was directed
towards a standard German introduction to Canadian regions and literature.
So people at the National Library and at the International Council for
Canadian Studies of Canada know about the work that is being done here
in Germany. Works that have been added to the list of introductory volumes
over the last five years are for example Rolf Althof’s and Albert-Reiner
Glaap's book on Canadian drama, which appeared in German and English, as
well as Walter Pache's contribution to Hubert Zapf's Amerikanische Literaturgeschichte
under the title "Die andere nordamerikanische Literatur" - a
contribution which the FAZ referred to as "ein lohnender Blick nach
Kanada." There are also several informative introductory interdisciplinary
volumes edited by Wolfgang Klooss and his Trier colleagues.
Another field to which German students of Canadian literature have contributed
is that of single author studies. And these, increasingly, at least if
they are written in English, are also read and reviewed by the Canadian
journals. There have been new and innovative studies, especially of authors
such as Margaret Laurence and Margaret Atwood.
I don't want to finish my deliberations without a look at Marburg's place
in this international field of collaboration. As far as institutional support
is concerned, the library holdings of the Alan Coatsworth Collection of
the University Library, where we are meeting right now, are excellent.
Courses have been offered here on a Proseminar level on a regular basis,
and you have had Canadian guest professors here who have been the envy
of other German universities specialising in Canadian Studies. Not every
German university is so lucky as to have as their guest professors Governor
General's Award Winners like Rudy Wiebe, who was here last year, or Jack
Hodgins, whom I gladly welcome among us here today together with Liliane
Welch, a new voice from the Maritimes who - I quote - "adds a new
dimension to contemporary Canadian poetry which will help to locate it
on the world map."
But I have the feeling that in addition to the "Canlit" facilities
just listed there is the capacity here in Marburg for even more substantial
contributions to the study of Canadian Literature. I have met in the classes
which I'm teaching here at Marburg this semester many students who have
expressed their very strong interest in doing more work on Canadian Literature,
or perhaps even writing their Master's, Staatsexamen or doctora theses
on Canadian authors such as Ondaatje and Atwood, Wiebe, Kroetsch or Hodgins.
The institutional - that is library - background is here, the students
are highly motivated, and so I hope that in the coming years we'll see
the University of Marburg more often in the publications and theses sections
of the Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien. If you're
looking for material, it's right here within these walls, in printed form,
but also - and especially today - in person. The writers, as you can see
today, are still alive, very much so, they write exciting stuff, and they
are willing and able to discuss their writing with you. No such luck with
Shakespeare, Milton, or Melville.
In diesem Sinne möchte ich Ihnen, meine Damen und Herren, und uns
einen angenehmen Canadian Literature Day wünschen und hoffen, daß
Sie, sei es für Ihr weiteres Studium, sei es für den Unterricht
an der Schule oder an der Universität, sei es für Ihre private
Lektüre oder Ihre wissenschaftliche Forschung, heute einige Anregungen
erhalten und mir - wenn nicht schon jetzt, dann im Rückblick auf diesen
Tag - zustimmen, wenn ich behaupte, daß die kanadische Literatur
eine der lebendigsten und vielseitigsten ist, die es zur Zeit auf der Welt
gibt.
And once again a warm welcome to our two guests from Canada, Liliane Welch
from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, in the very
East of Canada, and Jack Hodgins from the University of Victoria, British
Columbia, in the very West of the country. To me, these two writers symbolize
beautifully the national motto of the Dominion of Canada: "a mari
usque ad mare" - "d'un océan…l'autre" - "from
sea to sea."
Martin Kuester, Ph.D. (Univ. Manitoba), Universität Augsburg, Lehrstuhl
für Englische Literaturwissenschaft, Universitätsstraße
10, 86135 Augsburg
e-mail: Martin.Kuester@Phil.Uni-Augsburg.DE
[1] Einführende Bemerkungen zum Canadian Literature Day 1997
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