The International Conference on German Studies

4-6 April 2024

The Department of Literature and Cultural Studies under the Faculty of Letters within Transilvania University of Brașov organizes between 4 and 6 April 2024, in collaboration with the Romanian Germanists Society (Brașov Branch), the 27th International Conference themed on Metamorphosen – Paradigmen des Wandels in Kultur, Literatur und Sprache.

Since ancient times, literature has been exploring the inexhaustible potential of metamorphoses, from psychological and biological dimensions, through identity crises and social convulsions, to transgressions between objective reality and subjective perception. The complexity of the metamorphosis has probably become a cliché. However, it is the transformations that generate new paradigms, proving that change is an integral part of the individual and collective human experience. 

Metamorphoses can also be found as a matter of study in the minority languages and literatures of Central and Eastern Europe, with a predominant focus on the metamorphic valences of collective and individual identity. The literature of German expression and the native German language in Romania are characterized by numerous changes, adaptations and transformations. Cultural identity, belonging, exile, loss are topics frequently researched from various perspectives, and the study on the transformation processes of this socio-cultural, literary and linguistic space offers a deeper understanding of minority cultural heritage and identity, while also revealing the mechanisms that lead to the emergence new paradigms.

This way, within the 27th International Conference on the German Studies of Brașov, we want to address the topic of metamorphoses in an interdisciplinary manner, especially since 2024 marks the author Franz Kafka’s hundredth commemoration, and the present day seems more metamorphic and Kafkaesque than ever.

Further information about the event can be found on the website of the Braşovian German Studies: 

https://germanis<wbr< a="">>tik.unitbv.ro/internationale-tagung-kronstadter-germanistik-2024/