A Remembered 20th Century
Symposium, Vienna, 6th-8th November 2013
A joint event of International Elias Canetti Society and the Austrian Literature Society in collaboration with the Austrian libraries and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Department V
The symposium is a sequel of the conference „Cultures of Remembrance in Comparison“, that took place in Vienna in May 2009. Its results were published by Elias Canetti Society in 2011 in Roehrig publishing house in St. Ingbert.
Central place has the concept of identity in contemporary Europe that inspires and connects European cultures and the seeking for the possible common traits as a basis for a European identity.
In the coexistence of different groups of population in modern European conurbations unfold all the aspects of those themes: conflict, hegemonic discourse, perceptions and perceptions of the foreign that create the problem fields and expectations to which city governments respond with new structures and concepts of urbanism.
We should also take into account the numerous “identity creating” concepts and conceptual levels – nation/region, language, symbols, history/background etc. – that define a difficult to manage thematic field from which many European problems emerge.
The symposium is dedicated to this issue and provides a stage for scientists from all over Europe to reflect upon the above mentioned conceptual levels. It will pose for discussion the existing concepts, perceptions, discourses and manifestations, but also solution models and utopias that make understanding contemporary problems probable, creating models of future peaceful coexistence in Europe.