Winter Semester 2026: Events

October 20, 2026, 6:15pm, Lecture Hall building of "Religion and Politics" Cluster of Excellence, room JO 01, Johannisstraße 4, 48143 Münster

Annette von Droste Hülshoff-Lecture organized by the Cluster of Excellency "Religion and Politics"

Lecture and Discussion in Ukrainian und German

Introduction and moderator: Irina Wutsdorff

Organized by "Religion and Politics" Cluster of Excellence at the University of Münster

November 6, 2026, 7:30pm, Akademie Franz Hitze Haus, Kardinal-von-Galen-Ring 50, 48149 Münster

„Ukrainian Library“

Presentation of the literature series and discussion with Claudia Dathe and Katja Petrowskaja (in German)

Moderator: Irina Wutsdorff

Organized by Akademie Franz Hitze Haus in cooperation with the Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Münster

November 10, 2026, 6:30pm, Domplatz 23, lecture hall 102, 48143 Münster

Dr. Andrzej Michalczyk (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): Polen – aktuelle Innen- und Außenpolitik und seine Nachbarn: Deutschland, Ukraine und Russland

Lecture and discussion

In this study, Davor Beganović examines Yugoslav culture of the 1960s as that of a long decade: From the late 1950s through to the early 1970s, two divergent trends emerged, setting themselves apart from both the long-standing paradigm of the avant-garde and that of (socialist) realism: on the one hand, a turn towards the model of existentialism; on the other, towards that of the carnival. This development was first seen in the visual arts, when the Mediala group was founded in 1954, and then evolved further in literature, philosophy, and film: Think of the movement that has gone down in film history as the ‘Black Wave’. These trends did not remain in the cultural sphere. One of the most significant political events in Yugoslavia in the late 1960s was the student revolt, which often took on a carnivalesque form, whilst its ideological foundation lay in the adoption of ideas from the Praxis Group. This group, in turn, was closely linked to the principles of existentialist philosophy.

Yet it was precisely this politicisation of culture in the 1960s that ultimately led to its decline – as a result of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia’s uncompromising purge of its leading figures. Filmmakers, in particular, fell victim to a new rigidity in Yugoslav cultural policy. In an attempt to appease the rebellious spirit of the students, the Belgrade Student Cultural Centre was established as what can be understood as a compromise solution.  Under its auspices, Grupa šest (‘Group Six’) was founded, marking the end of the culture of the ‘long Sixties’. Marina Abramović emerged from this group, soon breaking away from it, though, taking her own way and turning her attention to other stages. Thus, her performance *Thomas Lips / Lips of Thomas* marked in a special way the end of an era characterised by the discourses of carnival and existentialism.

Davor Beganović, as a Slavicist and literary scholar, but above all as an attentive reader, has embarked on a research journey through the historical and contemporary landscapes of Ukrainian literature in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the suffering that the Ukrainian people are consequently enduring. Work by work, from the poetry and prose of classical modernism to texts by authors writing today amidst bombings or in exile, we encounter Lesya Ukrainka and Valerian Pidmohylny, as well as Serhiy Zhadan and Yuriy Andruchovych, and Lana Lux and Andriy Lyubka. Before our very eyes, the horrors of war, crimes, repression, and family and personal tragedies alternate with occasional moments of freedom. We learn of the writers’ fates, their works and their characters, and in doing so gradually discover that Ukrainian literature, in its multilingualism, multiculturalism and rich polyphony, not only possesses an extraordinary integrative power and does not merely react to external social constraints, but also constitutes a small-scale world literature in its own right.

These are authors and works that transcend national borders and offer an authentic artistic response to war, disasters and political and existential crises, whilst at the same time celebrating linguistic and cultural autonomy. The way in which Davor Beganović, in his book *Anatomy of Resistance to the Empire: Essays on Ukrainian Literature* (Anatomija otpora imperiju. Ogledi o ukrajinskoj književnosti), interweaves the past and the present and depicts the literary mosaic of Ukraine makes this book an important testament to a nation’s endurance and resistance.

The Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" welcomes the Ukrainian author Sofia Andruchowytsch for the Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Reading in Münster. The focal point of the bilingual evening will be her monumental epic Amadoka, which explores the complex intersections of memory, religion, and political violence in Ukraine. Read for details on the lecture series, the author, and the evening's programme.

📅 When: October 20, 2026, 6:15pm
📍 Where: Lecture Hall building of "Religion and Politics" Cluster of Excellence, room JO 01, Johannisstraße 4, 48143 Münster
🗣️ Language: Ukrainian and German
🎤 Moderation: Irina Wutsdorff
🎤 Translation: Dr. Tetyana Dagovych
🎟️ Free Entry

The lecture takes a deep dive into political and social developments in Poland in 2026 and places them within the current context of European security policy. The growing threats to Germany, Poland, and the European Union resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine will be a main topic of this lecture. The lecture, in addition In addition to the military dimension, focuses on Russian disinformation campaigns and manipulation aimed at destabilizing democratic societies while fostering political polarization and weakening European cohesion.

The historian Dr. Andrzej Michalczyk specializes in the history and society of East Central Europe and works at Ruhr University Bochum. He has sucessfully published numerous works on nationalism studies, migration, the culture of remembrance, and German-Polish relations.

Prof. Dr. Irina Wutsdorff hat einen neuen Band über das Feuilleton in Prag im 19./20. Jahrhundert herausgegeben. Der Titel des Bands lautet „Prag im | Feuilleton | in Prag“ und ist hier zu finden.

Im Prag des 19./20. Jahrhunderts treten deutsch(sprachig)e und tschechisch(sprachig)e Kultur in Austausch und Abgrenzung zueinander. Als Ort dieser Prozesse untersucht der Band das Feuilleton: Das vielfach von Selbstreflexivität und spielerischen Formen geprägte feuilletonistische Schreiben sucht insbesondere Detailbeobachtungen ein Signum der Zeit abzugewinnen. Wenn in Feuilletons die Erfahrungen der Moderne in besonderem Maße verdichtet sind und sich diesen kleinen Texten insofern eine Kulturpoetik der Moderne ablesen lässt, gilt dies für die spezifische Situation in Prag und die dort anzutreffenden unterschiedlichen Positionierungen umso mehr. Das Mit-, In-, Neben- und Gegeneinander von Deutschen und Tschechen in der Stadt Prag der Zeit tritt im Feuilleton besonders deutlich zutage.

Das Buch "Erzählungen im Gerichtssaal. Literarisierte Narration in russischen Plädoyers 1864–1917" von Tetyana Dagovych ist im J.B.Metzler-Verlag in der Reihe "Literatur und Recht" erschienen und ist hier zu finden.

● Untersucht und belegt erstmals umfassend die literarischen Eigenschaften der Plädoyers im späten Russischen Reich
● Analysiert den Einfluss literarischer Techniken auf die Rechtsprechung der Epoche
● Zeigt die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Gerichtsreden und zeitgenössischen literarischen Werken

Im reformierten Gericht des späten Russischen Reichs konnten spannende literarisierte Erzählungen mehr bewirken als Gesetze. Begünstigt wurde dies durch die Form des Geschworenengerichts sowie durch einige originelle Justiznormen. Dieses Buch analysiert herausragende Plädoyers der Epoche und zeigt, wie Anwälte mithilfe narrativer Techniken und literarischer Verfahren die Rechtsprechung nachhaltig beeinflussten – bis hin zu spektakulären Freisprüchen trotz nachgewiesener Täterschaft. Narrative Strategien konnten dabei zum Schutz Benachteiligter und zur Bereicherung der Literatur beitragen, aber gleichzeitig faktische Impunität ermöglichen.

The Reflective Figure: The Doll. Artificial Beings in (Central European) Modernist Literature and Art

Workshop

June 11-13, 2026

University of Münster, Vom-Stein-Haus (German Studies Department), Schlossplatz 34, Meeting Room 10 im EG

Organized by: Irina Wutsdorff

In light of recent discussions on developments in artificial intelligence and artificial beings, it is worth taking a look back at how artists have engaged with dolls since the dawn of modernism. In many ways, they serve as a mirror for the often ambivalent reaction to modernism, with its inherent problems as well as its potential: By showcasing the mechanical, dolls embody both the progress associated with technological advancement and the looming threat of dehumanization and alienation. They can also be shaped into an ideal or desired image of the body, often playing out the tension between the conscious and the unconscious.

A wide range of themes is explored and interwoven through the lens of dolls: fundamental anthropological questions are reflected in the relationship between dolls and humans. The exploration of (artistic) creativity through dolls encompasses a dimension that is often imbued with magic or religious-metaphysical significance, but also has a poetological aspect. A psychological dimension is particularly emphasized in connection with childhood memories and the doll as a toy. Reflections critical of civilization focus primarily on the automaton-like nature of dolls.

This interdisciplinary workshop explores diverse ways in which the phenomenon of the “puppet” is portrayed in literature and theater, from classical modernism to the present day, and examines typological connections.

Issue 2 (2025) of the journal "Schnittstelle Germanistik. Forum für Deutsche Sprache, Literatur und Kultur des mittleren und östlichen Europas" is dedicated to the topic of “Westsplaining.”

Two members of the institute have contributed articles to this special issue:

Agata Czaja: Polnischer Postkolonialismus als Instrument der politischen Rechten? Eine Analyse ausgewählter Aspekte  

Irina Wutsdorff: Selbstverliebte Selbstkritik oder: Zu blinden Flecken westlicher Kritik am ,Westen‘ 

In the interview series ‘Research at the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics’, Irina Wutsdorff and Daniela Amodio talked about their academic work on references to traditional icon painting in 19th and 20th century Russian art and literature. Icons were originally cult and saint images of the Eastern Churches. However, they were elevated to symbols of this very tradition by the so-called Slavophiles, followers of a Russian philosophical-political ideology in the 19th century that emphasised Russia's independence from Western Europe. Thus, icons differed from the Western European and Western Church pictorial tradition.

In their research project ‘Between Religious Tradition and Aesthetic Innovation: The A-Mimetic Nature of Icons in Russian Art and Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries,’ Slavic scholars Irina Wutsdorff and Daniela Amodio examine the tension surrounding references to the icon tradition. In a video and a written interview, they explain their research.

Prof. Dr. Regina Elsner, Prof. Dr. Ricarda Vulpius und Prof. Dr. Christina Clasmeier, all three of them experts on Eastern Europe, discussed the impact of the war in Ukraine on academia.

The full interview can be found here: https://www.uni-muenster.de/news/view.php?cmdid=15228

Neuerscheinung: Dmytro Čyževs’kyj and Prague – Perspectives of Intellectual Entanglement

The thematic block ‘Dmytro Čyževs’kyj and Prague: Perspectives of Intellectual Entanglement’ with contributions by Renate Lachmann (Konstanz), Josef Vojvodík (Praha),Irina Wutsdorff (Münster), Roman Mnich (Warszawa), Patrick Flack (Fribourg) and Maxim Demin (Bochum)goes back to a workshop with this title that took place at the Masaryk Institute and Archive of the CAS in Prague from 18–20 January 2024.

The workshop focussed on Dmytro Čyževs’kyj and his stay in Prague (1924–1932) as an example of intellectual entanglement in 20th century Central Europe. When living in Prague, Čyževs’kyj was simultaneously involved in the Ukrainian and Russian émigré communities. He taught at the Mykhailo Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute as well as in the Ukrainian Free University and was a member of the Ukrainian Historical-Philological Society. At the same time, he participated in the work of the Prague Linguistic Circle and the Philosophical Society at the Russian Free University. Interwar Prague was a place of intercultural intellectual exchange and entanglement, where several traditions of thinking came together or were confronted with each other — a configuration which was true for differing political positions as well.

Taking Čyževs’kyj’s involvement in intersecting communities in interwar-Prague as a starting point, the workshop combined literary theoretical and literary-historical as well as philosophical and philosophical-historical approaches to this phenomenon of intellectual entanglement.

Neuerscheinung: Valentin Peschanskyi - Die tote Frau als Ikone. Zur Verbindung von Tod, Weiblichkeit und (Heiligen-)Bild bei Fedor Dostoevskij, Vasilij Perov, Ivan Turgenev und Evgenij Bauėr.

Abstract: Die zum Reflexionsbild erstarrte Frauenleiche ist ein zentrales Motiv der europäischen Kunst, das sein russisches Kulturspezifikum durch die Verbindung mit der orthodoxen Ikone erhält. Die Studie untersucht die Transformationen lebendiger Frauenfiguren zu toten Bildkörpern und geht deren Funktions- und Bedeutungsvielfalt nach. Die hier betrachteten (Bewegt-)Bilder und Texte stellen den weiblichen Leichnam als (Heiligen-)Bild in vielschichtige ästhetisch produktive Spannungsfelder: zwischen Kult und Kunst, Dies- und Jenseits, Form und Zerfall, Ethik und Ästhetik. Insofern sie dabei auch das Verhältnis von Russland und (West-)Europa sowie zwischen Tradition und sich anbahnender Moderne verhandeln, problematisieren die Werke virulente Fragen der Zeit, Umbrüche und Krisen sowohl ästhetisch-poetologischer als auch religiöser, philosophischer, medialer, ethischer und sozialer Natur.

Zur Verlagsseite

Neuerscheinung

Marie-Sofia Trautmann, Verena Meyer, Rasmus Hahn:
Zehn Jahre Krieg: Ukrainische Tagebücher und Aufzeichnungen und der Einfluss des Kriegsgeschehens

In: Schnittstelle Germanistik. Forum für Deutsche Sprache, Literatur und Kultur des mittleren und östlichen Europas. Jahrgang 4, Ausgabe 1 (2024). Sondernummer zum Themenschwerpunkt Die Ukraine. Am Schnittpunkt europäischer Traditionen, hg. von Amy-Diana Colin und Steffen Höhne. S. 259-275.

Online können Sie hier auf die Ausgabe zugreifen. 

Neuerscheinung: Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West

Wir möchten Sie auf die Erscheinung des Handbuchs zur Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West aufmerksam machen, das von Michał Mrugalski , Schamma Schahadat und Irina Wutsdorff herausgegen wurde. Das Handbuch ist vollständig im Open Access zugänglich.

Zum Inhalt

Literary theory flourished in Central and Eastern Europe throughout the twentieth century, but its relation to Western literary scholarship is complex. This book sheds light on the entangled histories of exchange and influence both within the region known as Central and Eastern Europe, and between the region and the West. The exchange of ideas between scholars in the East and West was facilitated by both personal and institutional relations, both official and informal encounters. For the longest time, however, intellectual exchange was thwarted by political tensions that led to large parts of Central and Eastern Europe being isolated from the West. A few literary theories nevertheless made it into Western scholarly discourses via exiled scholars. Some of these scholars, such as Mikhail Bakhtin, become widely known in the West and their thought was transposed onto new, Western cultural contexts; others, such as Ol’ga Freidenberg, were barely noticed outside of Russian and Poland. This volume draws attention to the schools, circles, and concepts that shaped the development of theory in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the histoire croisée – the history of translations, transformations, and migrations – that conditioned its relationship with the West.