First World War conference

Helmuth von Moltke

Several members of the Department of Culture will be taking part in an academic conference to be held at the university on the 5th and 6th April 2014. The First World War and Its Global Legacies: 100 Years On will explore the impact of this first truly global war on the history, culture, philosophy, language and politics of the century following it. The conference programme includes over twenty papers by scholars from as far afield as Russia, Algeria and the USA. Topics include landscapes and the imagination; computer games; colonial education in British West Africa; media representations of veterans of the Great War. Amongst the keynote speakers will be Professor Maggie Andrews, Professor Tim Kirk, Dr Martin Hurcombe and Kate Adie (writer and broadcaster). Sunderland's Dr Angela Smith will be giving a keynote talk entitled ‘Sympathy and Suspicion: State Surveillance of British Widows of the First World War’. Six other Department of Culture members will also be giving papers.

• Arwa Ebrahim: 'The Impact of the First World War on the Middle East and its Effect on Arab Women'.
• Dr Barry Lewis: 'Rechewing the Cud: Sebastian Barry's A Long Long Way and the Irish Experience of the First World War'.
• Dr Kath Kerr-Koch: 'From Apokatastasis to Deconstruction: The Legacy of the First World War in the Transfiguration of Modern Thought'.
• Janet Pearson: 'Drifting into the Abyss: Twilight Consciousness in Hermann Broch’s The Sleepwalkers'.
• Dr Fritz Wefelmeyer: '"Overcome by Horror". Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of German General Staff 1906-14, in his letters and memoirs'.
• Fadi Elhusseini: 'The Great War, the Middle East and Islam'.

Postcolonialism and Islam

Current and past academics from the English and History teams in the Department of Culture have published Postcolonialism and Islam: Theory, Literature, Culture, Society and Film (Routledge, 2013). The book, which had its origins in a conference held at the University of Sunderland in 2010, is edited by Drs Geoff Nash, Kath Kerr-Koch and Sarah Hackett (Bath Spa University).

The essays in the collection examine, question and broaden the applicability of Postcolonialism and Islam from a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary perspective.

Fritz Wefelmeyer on Botho Strauß

Dr Fritz Wefelmeyer has published an article on the German playwright Botho Strauß in the journal Pandaemonium Germanicum. Fritz considers the way in which the social theories and world views originally followed by Strauß have - according to Strauß himself - led to a longing for transcendence in the wrong direction, ignoring the true significance of technology. However, Fritz argues that Strauß’ own analysis, which incorporates insights from the natural sciences in particular, fails to take adequate account of creative activity. The article then explores another perspective emerging from Strauß’ representation of the state of unhappy consciousness of the modern individual and the various attempts made to transcend this. Finally, Strauß’ own attempt to achieve transcendence through art is critically examined.

Fritz Wefelmeyer (2013). Die Sehnsucht nach Transzendenz Zu ihrer Bedeutung im Werk von Botho Strauß. Pandaemonium Germanicum. Vol. 16, No. 21, pp. 1-24.