“Kleistian (pre-)Occupations”

Heinrich von Kleist 1777-1811-2011

A Graduate Student Conference

Keynote Speaker: Seán Allan, University of Warwick

California State University Long Beach

Friday October 28 - Saturday October 29, 2011

Karl Anatol Center

Many of the works and letters of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) reflect the troubles of a writer whose personal life was as transitional and turbulent as the time in which he lived. From the revolutions in North America, France, and Haiti to the Napoleonic occupations, the tumultuous social and political landscapes of the late 18th and the early 19th centuries shaped Kleist’s intellectual development and biography. The French occupation of the German states and the idea of Prussian independence (as well as Prussian national identity) play a prominent role in Kleist’s texts, with foreign occupation and usurpation serving as a common theme in Robert Guiskard (1803), Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise of O..., 1807), Die Hermannsschlacht (Hermann’s Battle, 1808), Die Verlobung in St. Domingo (Betrothal in San Domingo, 1811), Prinz Friedrich von Homburg (The Prince of Homburg, 1811), and Kleist’s political poetry. Kleist, a writer who transcends and often defies conventional categorization, was similarly pre-occupied with an array of related themes, including the pursuit of happiness, the construction of a Lebensplan (a life plan), the fall from grace, justice, gender roles, and Erkenntnistheorie (epistemology); all interwoven with the overarching conference theme of occupation. The conferencewill explore the author’s works and life – addressing the theme of the writer’s occupation and Kleist’s preoccupations as French militaryoccupation looms, becomes reality, and as the war of independence incubates –as well as the relevance of these themes 200 years after Kleist’s suicide.

Speakers include:

Seán Allan (University of Warwick)

Bozena Anna Badura (University of Mannheim)

Lisa Beesley (Vanderbilt University)

Joshua Clemente Bonilla (University of Chicago)

Daniel Chaffey (California State University Long Beach)

Andrea Dahlmann-Resing (University of British Columbia, Vancouver)

Viktoria Gabriel (University of California Los Angeles)

Roswitha B. Grannell (California State University Long Beach)

Jeffrey High (California State University Long Beach)

Gail Hart (University of California Irvine)

Jennifer Hoyer (University of Arkansas)

Alex Holznienkemper (Ohio State University)

Wolf Kittler (University of California Santa Barbara)

Curtis Maughan (California State University Long Beach)

Henrik Sponsel (University of California Irvine)

Henrik S. Wilberg (Northwestern University)

Holly A. Yanacek (University of Pittsburgh)

For more information, please contact Curtis Maughan <> and Lisa Beesley <>.