1968/2008

“Memories of 1968. International Perspectives”

University of Leeds 17th-18th April 2008

Keynote speakers:
Janette Habel (Paris)
Marco Antonio Guerra (San Paulo, Brazil)
Martin Klimke (Heidelberg/Washington D.C.)
John Foot (London)

Sponsored by: School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds; Association for the Study of Modern & Contemporary France (ASMCF), Ambassade de France, Italian Cultural Institute, Goethe Institute, Brazilian Embassy, Universities’ China Committee; Leeds Humanities Research Institute

Please find the conference programme and registration form at
www.german.leeds.ac.uk/gsm/Memories-of-1968.htm

For further information about the conference,  please contact Sarah Waters (S.A.Waters@Leeds.ac.uk). For registration details, please contact Mercedes de Birch (m.c.debirch@leeds.ac.uk)

The events of 1968 continue to generate widespread interest and controversy among scholars, nearly forty years after student and worker movements erupted across an international stage. In the West, 1968 was associated with the coming of age of the baby boomers, the growth of the New Left, protest against authoritarian attitudes and practices in society, as well as opposition to the Vietnam War. In the Soviet block, on the other hand, it was associated with the Prague Spring, and in  China with the Cultural Revolution of Mao’s Red Guard.

Perhaps more than any other moment in post-war history, 1968 has been consecrated within different national cultures and elevated to the realm of the mythical. Yet, the events of 1968 are nowadays inseparable from their subsequent representation through the media of literature, cinema and theory. While the 1968 events themselves have been the subject of  extensive international comparison, and important work has been done on representations of 1968 in literature, film and theory in a number of countries, few if any scholars have compared the subsequent representations of 1968 within these different national settings.

The purpose of this conference is therefore to compare and discuss representations of 1968 within different national contexts. How has 1968 been (re-)produced and/or contested within different national cultures and how do these processes reflect national preoccupations with order, political violence, freedom, youth, authority, self-expression? How  has the memory of 1968 been constructed in different media (film, literature, biography, monuments, etc.) and theoretical frameworks (philosophy, sociology, historiography)? Is there a collective social memory of 1968 and does this memory cross different national cultures?

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