Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Of Awful Connections, East German Primitives and the New Black Berlin Wall: Germany and German History in African American Literature, 1892-2016

Objective

Darryl Pinckney’s “Black Deutschland” (2016), Paul Beatty’s “Slumberland” (2008), and John A. Williams’ “Clifford’s Blues” (1999) are three recent novels by African American authors and with African American protagonists that are partly set in Germany and that include references to events of German history such as the Holocaust and German Reunification. The research action will take these three novels as points of departure for an investigation that combines an accurate analysis of the images and functions of Germany and German history in African American literature with a transnational, comparative perspective. Drawing on a theoretical framework that connects comparative imagology, black diaspora studies, and the recent academic focus on world literature's “multidirectional memory” and its “cosmopolitan style”, the project will analyze four historically diverse, cross-cultural discourses that have shaped the role of Germany and German history in African American literature: 1) the formation of a ‘canonic’ African American image of postromantic Wilhelminian Germany that can be traced back to Du Bois’ time as a student in Berlin (1892-94); 2) the interwar period and its intertwining sub-discourses of the Old World as “racial haven” for African Americans, and of Berlin as “European capital of sexual libertinage”; 3) National Socialism and its relations and parallels to racism in the U.S.; 4) African American perceptions of Germany as a divided and/or reunified country. The project is based at two institutions in Berlin: the interdisciplinary Zentrum für Literatur- and Kulturforschung (ZfL), where the applicant will be part of the research area on world literature, and the Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the FU Berlin, where a secondment will take place. The project's location in the German capital, which is in itself a major topic of the research action, will be a connecting factor for numerous networking, dissemination and communication activities.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2017

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

GEISTESWISSENSCHAFTLICHE ZENTREN BERLIN EV
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 171 460,80
Address
SCHUTZENSTRASSE 18
10117 Berlin
Germany

See on map

Region
Berlin Berlin Berlin
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 171 460,80
My booklet 0 0