Anonymity and Temporality

A conference organized by the Cluster of Excellence 2020 "Temporal Communities" in cooperation with King's College London. For premodern literatures, anonymity has often been considered the standard form in which texts are authored, while the named author has frequently been considered to be a product of (Western) modernity. European literatures, especially, have been seen as developing within a teleological framework which posits the named and clearly identifiable author as the logical end-point of a close-to-ineluctable historical development that coincides with the rise of industrial capitalism, bourgeois societies and modern subjectivity. Paradoxically, such a perspective has been reinforced rather than deconstructed by the poststructuralist onslaught on authorship (Barthes, Foucault). Anonymity and Temporality seeks to explore a more specific perspective within a broader cultural framework. The central issue to be investigated is that of premodern literary anonymity's capacity for shaping temporalities – an issue to be addressed in a perspective that integrates Europe in a global perspective. Instead of seeing anonymity as a cultural given that simply occurs during a particular period in European literary history, we wish to conceive of it both as a specific cultural practice and a strategic resource that plays a central role in shaping temporalities. Participants: Frank Bezner, Josh Davies, Anne Eusterschulte, Beatrice Gründler, Andrew James Johnston, Elke Koch, Clare A. Lees, David Matthews, Henry Ravenhall, Rachel Scott, Isabel Toral, Lawrence Warner Further details and registration: peter.loeffelbein@fu-berlin.de Freie Universität Berlin Seminarzentrum, Room L 116 Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin Programme Thursday, December 5 14:30 Registration 15:00 Welcome address 15:30 Josh Davies Names, non-names and anonymity on, in and around the Franks Casket: History, temporality and community 16:30 Beatrice Gründler Anonymity, Obscurity, and Silent Co-Authorship in Kalīla and Dimna Friday, December 6 09:30 Clare A. Lees Anonymity Effects: The Medieval in The Contemporary 10:30 Isabel Toral Anonymity and authority: authorship in an Arabic encyclopedia of the tenth century 11:30 Coffee 12:00 Rachel Scott Temporality and Identification in Kalila wa-Dimna’s European Translations 13:00 Lunch 14:30 David Matthews Fatherless Children: The Perils of Anonymity in the 1530s 15:30 Elke Koch Truth and Faith. Naming and Anonymity in the context of witnessing and testimony 16:30 Coffee 17:00 Frank Bezner Clerics without a Name? Anonymity and Medieval Latin (‘Secular’) Lyrics Saturday, December 7 09:30 Andrew James Johnston Anonymity Incarnate: the Scop in Beowulf 10:30 Henry Ravenhall The Untimely Speaker: Anonymity and Narrative Voice in BnF fr. 1717 11:30 Coffee 12:00 Lawrence Warner The Gawain Poet Rewrites Middle English Studies: Anonymity and the MED 13:00 Lunch 14:30 Anne Eusterschulte Temporal Anonymity. Changing authorships in medieval textual traditions 15:30 Coffee 16:00 – 17:00 Final Panel Discussion