From 5 to 7 November 2007, the RIALE research group of the Universitat de València organises the congress «Alemania-España: Viajes y viajeros entre ficción y realidad» (‘Germany-Spain: Trips and travellers between fiction and reality’), an educational meeting dedicated to the study of cultural relations between Spain and the German-speaking field trhough travel literature. The congress is held at the assembly hall of Museu Valencià de la Il·lustració i de la Modernitat (MuVIM), in cooperation with the Department of English and German Philology at the Universitat de València.
The initiative is aimed at analysing and problematizing Spain’s rooting within the European cultural space, as well as studying the impressions of German travellers in Spain, and of Spanish travellers in Germany. Through these diverse perspectives, the meeting tackles the perceptions of the cultural shock, the differences and similarities between both countries, and the construction of cultural images that range from historical reality and literary fiction.
Under the academic leadership of Berta Raposo and the Grupo Oswald, the congress gathers specialists from Spanish, German, and American universities to reflect on the role of travel literature as an instrument for intercultural knowledge, and as a space for collective imaginary construction.
The programme includes conferences and communications dedicated to essential figures of the travel history between Spain and Germany, such as Wilhelm von Humboldt, Alexander von Humboldt, or Victor Aimé Huber, as well as studies on German travellers in the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Valencia, or during the Spanish Civil War. Moreover, texts written by contemporary authors, such as Peter Handke, are also analysed, and cultural representations arisen out from the contact between both traditions.
The participants include researchers from the Universitat de València, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universitat de Barcelona, the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Extremadura, the University of the Basque Country, the University of La Laguna, the University of Arizona, and the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), among other institutions.
Apart from the academic sessions, the meeting includes a round table dedicated to the German traveller C. A. Fischer in the Valencia of the early 19th century, and a poetic reading by the Swiss writer, Beat Sterchi, reinforcing the dialogue between research, literature, and artistic creation.
With this congress, RIALE establishes one of the main lines of research: the study of travel literature as a privileged space for the analysis of intercultural relations between Spain and the German-speaking world. Additionally, the activity contributes to strengthening international academic networks, and promoting new cross-disciplinary perspectives on mobility, identity, and cultural representation in Europe.
