Whitman Week in Bamberg, July 21-26, 2014

The 7th International Walt Whitman Week took place at the University of Bamberg, July 21-26, 2014. After a five-day seminar for 34 students from Germany, the United States, Bangladesh, Brazil, the Czech Republic, England, France, Italy, Turkey, and Spain, the Whitman Week concluded with an international symposium on “Whitman Across Genres.”

For a short student report on the Whitman Week in Bamberg and more photos, please clickhere.

Transatlantic Whitman Seminar

From Monday through Friday, 34 students and 7 instructors from 9 countries came together for daily lectures, plenary discussions and small group seminars on Whitman’s work, and two translation workshops.

Seminar Instructors:

  • Betsy Erkkila, Northwestern University, USA
  • Ed Folsom, University of Iowa, USA
  • Walter Grünzweig, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany
  • Peter J. L. Riley, University of Oxford, UK

Translation Session Instructors:

  • Marina Camboni, University of Macerata, Italy
  • Mario Corona, Bergamo University, Italy
  • Maria Clara Paro, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil
  • Marta Skwara, University of Szczecin, Poland

International Symposium “Whitman Across Genres”

During a two-day research symposium on “Whitman Across Genres,” 18 scholarly presentations explored Whitman’s genre-defying art and his lasting impact on international fringe poetry and fiction, architecture and music, sociology and politics.

Friday, July 25 (U7/01.05)

Session I: Whitman’s All-Fusing, Genre-Defying Art (2:30 – 4:00 p.m.)

Coffee Break

Session II: Neglected Dimensions of Whitman: His Fiction, Journalism, and Marginalia (4:30 – 6:00 p.m.)

Saturday, July 26 (U7/01.05)

Session III: Tracking Whitman Across Cultures (10:00 – 12:00 a.m.)

Lunch Break

Session IV: Whitman in Fiction, Music, and Sociology (1:30 - 3:30 p.m.)

Coffee Break

Session V: Rethinking Whitman’s Late Prose, Lectures, and Appearances in Documentaries (4:00 – 6:00 p.m.)

The complete conference program can be downloaded here(487.5 KB, 2 Seiten).

Previous Whitman Weeks

Since 2008, the Whitman Week has been held at different universities around the world. Click here(1.5 MB, 3 Seiten) for impressions from previous Whitman Weeks at Universität Dortmund, Germany (2008), Université Francois Rabelais, France (2009), Università di Macerata, Italy (2010), Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil (2011), Szczecin University, Poland (2012), and Northwestern University, USA (2013).

Whitman Week in Chicago, 2013

In 2013, two members of the Bamberg American Studies team participated in the 6th International Walt Whitman Week at Northwestern University in Chicago - a six day series of lectures, workshops and symposium on one of America's most innovative and influential poets, held by international specialists.

In Chicago 30 students and 7 instructors from 9 countries came together to listen to lectures on Whitman's work, discuss their ideas in daily plenary sessions and small group seminars, and compare their own translations of selected Whitman passages in special translation workshops. Click here for photos and a short report on the Whitman Week 2013 in Chicago.