DFG

DFG Research Network (# BA 3567/4-1) (external link, opens in a new window)
"Cultural Performance in Transnational American Studies" (external link, opens in a new window)

2014-2018 (36 months + extension)

Project Directors:

Network Participants:

Prof. Dr. Nassim Balestrini (Karl Franzens U Graz)
Dr. Birgit M. Bauridl (U of Regensburg)
Dr. Juliane Braun (U of Bonn)
Nanne Buurman, M.A. (Free U of Berlin/U of Leipzig)
Prof. Dr. Ben Chappell (U of Kansas)
Dr. Julia Faisst (Catholic U of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt)
Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley (U of Kansas)
Dr. Katrin Horn, M.A. (U of Wuerzburg)
Dr. Leopold Lippert (U of Salzburg)
Frederike Offizier, M.A. (U of Potsdam)
Prof. Dr. Ilka Saal (U of Toronto / U of Erfurt)
Dr. Leonard Schmieding (Georgetown U / German Historical Inst., Washington, DC)
Claudia Trotzke, M.A. (U of Regensburg)
Dr. Pia Wiegmink (Johannes Gutenberg-U Mainz)
Dr. Andrea Zittlau (U of Rostock)

Network Staff:
Kate Sherman

Abstract:
This network explores the potential of an integration of Performance Studies approaches into the field of (transnational) American Studies. It investigates how, which, and with what outcome issues that, in the wake of the transnational turn, have become central to the American Studies agenda can be addressed more adequately by the study of ‘cultural performances.’ Based on the idea of culture as a corporeal, communal, and dynamic event rather than a stable textual product, the individual projects arranged in three culturally and spatially specific clusters--the city, the nation, the globe—position the local particularities of cultural performance vis-à-vis the dynamics of global mobility. Firstly, they examine the role and impact of ‘cultural performances’ as particular acts of cultural expression (like daily rituals, festive occasions, or theatrical events) in transnational contact zones—sites in which cultures meet, grapple with each other, and inevitably negotiate questions of socio-political agency, representation, and power. Secondly, they develop and evaluate ‘cultural performance’ as a methodological approach for the study of transnational processes. In sum, the network scrutinizes the benefits and limitations of a deeper and more reflective integration of a Performance Studies approach into American Studies. By bringing together scholars of Performance and American Studies from the US, Europe, and Asia, it constitutes an exemplary site of transnational collaboration and establishes a dialogue across disciplinary boundaries.

For further information on events, participants and affiliates, etc., please visit our website (external link, opens in a new window).

"Plymouth Forefathers' Day and the Commemoration of a U.S. American Myth of Origin - An Edition of Forefathers' Day Orations 1770 to 1865"

Project Director:

Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel
Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik/American Studies
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Universität Regensburg
93040 Regensburg

Tel.: 0941-943-3477/78
Fax.: 0941-943-3590
e-mail: hebel@uni-regensburg.de (external link, opens in a new window)

Funding Period:

2010-2013

Abstract:
The collection and edition of orations that commemorate the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England in 1620 will be the first comprehensive documentation of the so-called Forefathers' Day Orations from the time period 1770 through 1865. Between the American Revolution and the Civil War, Forefathers' Day Orations were the cornerstone of celebratory performances dedicated to the commemoration of the foundation of the first Puritan colony in New England. In the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War, Forefathers' Day celebrations, and Forefathers' Day Orations in particular, contributed significantly to the construction of a national U.S. American myth of origin and the invention of a national U.S. American historical and political tradition. First established and flowering in Massachusetts and other New England states, Forefathers' Day celebrations followed the expansion of the U.S. to the South, Midwest, and West until the mid-nineteenth century. In the three decades before the Civil War, Forefathers' Day (December 22) was even seen to equal the Fourth of July in cultural and political significance. The two -volume edition of Forefathers' Day Orations collects representative examples from different phases of the time period between the Revolution and the Civil War and from different regions of the U.S. It documents the use of New England history for the purpose of national identity constructions in a crucial period of U.S. American cultural history and, at the same time, illustrates the rhetorical function of the New England myth of origin for regional identity politics.

„Das frühneuzeitliche deutsche Reich als politisches Referenzsystem des amerikanischen Föderalismus im Entstehungsprozeß der USA (1751-1788)“

Project Directors:

Prof. Dr. Volker Depkat
Professur für Amerikanistik
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Universität Regensburg
93040 Regensburg

Tel.: 0941-943-3476
Fax.: 0941-943-3590
e-mail: volker.depkat​(at)​sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de (external link, opens in a new window)

Professor Dr. Johannes Burkhardt, Emeritus
Lehrstuhl für Geschichte der Frühen Neuzeit
Direktor des Instituts für Europäische Kulturgeschichte
Universität Augsburg
Universitätsstraße 10
86135 Augsburg

Tel.: 0821-598-5548

Project Staff:

PD Dr. Jürgen Overhoff

Start of Project:

April 2009

Abstract:

Das Projekt analysiert den besonderen Status des frühneuzeitlichen deutschen Reiches als politisches Referenzsystem des amerikanischen Föderalismus im Entstehungsprozess der USA (1751-1788). In diesem Zusammenhang wird nicht in erster Linie danach gefragt, welche Elemente der Reichsverfassung möglicherweise Eingang in die U.S.-Verfassung von 1787 gefunden haben. Vielmehr wird unter Einbeziehung der neueren Forschungen zum Prozess der ‚Westernisierung‘ im Sinne Anselm Doering-Manteuffels und zum Problem des atlantisch-europäischen Kulturtransfers – der bereits im 18. Jahrhundert ein zirkulierender Ideenverkehr in beide Richtungen war –, untersucht, inwieweit das Organisations- und Ordnungssystem des Föderalismus auf beiden Seiten des Atlantiks als zukunftsträchtigstes politisches Mittel des Westens zur Lösung inner- und zwischenstaatlicher Konflikte diskutiert wurde, und wie in den USA im Rahmen dieses transatlantischen Föderalismusdiskurses insbesondere unter Bezug auf das Alte Reich eigene Konzepte und Positionen definiert und Maximen für das politische Handeln formuliert wurden.