What happens when stories are shaped by what is left unsaid? How do omissions, silences, and narrative absences construct identity and memory in literature? This workshop delves into the poetical and political functions of gaps in contemporary (auto)fiction, life writing, and graphic novels. Through keynote insights and interdisciplinary panels, we will explore how narratives engage with absence – whether as an artistic device, a trace of trauma, or a gap in history. Join us in uncovering the stories that emerge from what remains unsaid.
Information and Registration
The program is finalized, all panels have found their moderators, and we’re excited about the inspiring discussions that lie ahead. You can the finalized programme and poster down below.
Unfortunately, we only have limited places for the workshop, which makes a prior registration mandatory. If you would like to join the workshop, please write to hanna.horn@uni-greifswald.de (until 01. June).
All workshop participants have the opportunity to attend the public reading with Shushan Avagyan. If you are only interested in the public reading, please also register with an e-mail to hanna.horn@uni-greifswald.de.
If you would like to participate in parts of the workshop via Zoom, please also write us. We will then get back to you as soon as possible with further information and a link.
Workshop Programme
THURSDAY, 10 JULY 2025 | DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, DOMSTRASSE 9a, ROOM 3.07
- 09:00-09:30
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Registration
- 09:30-10:00
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Welcome
Paula Friedericke Hartmann, Hanna Horn, Tim Senkbeil (all Greifswald)
Construction Site. Gaps in Identity Writing (Part I)
- 10:00-10:45
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Avril Tynan (Turku)
On Not Filling Gaps: The Ethics of Narrative Absence
Moderation: Hanna Horn (Greifswald) - 10:50-11:35
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Kristian Svane (New Haven)
Exploring the Narrative Gaps of History. Autofictional Historiography
Moderation: Josephine Eckert (Greifswald) - 11:45-13:00
- Lunch Break
Construction Site. Gaps in Identity Writing (Part II)
- 13:15-14:00
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Hanna Rinderle (Berlin)
‘Managing the legacy’. Familial and social gaps in Jason Diakité’s memoir
Moderation: Charlotte Steinert (Greifswald) - 14:05-14:50
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Taryn Taverner-Smith (Stirling)
Embracing the Silence: Navigating Narrative Gaps and Experimental Approaches in Life Writing
Moderation: Hanna Horn (Greifswald) - 14:50-15:20
- Coffee Break
Confronting the Past. Literatures after 1989 (Part I)
- 15:25-16:10
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Nina Pilz (Greifswald)
‘dieses Loch füllte jetzt der Alkohol’: Alcohol-Related Gaps in Post-Wende Narratives
Moderation: Tim Senkbeil (Greifswald) - 16:15-17:00
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Nele Hempel-Lamer (Long Beach)
Motherhood in Cold War Germany – Exploring Narrative Gaps in Julia Franck’s and Birgit Vanderbeke’s Prose
Moderation: Tim Senkbeil (Greifswald) - 17:30
- Dinner (self-pay)
Koeppenhaus, Bahnhofstrasse 4-5
- 19:30-21:00
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Shushan Avagyan (Yerevan)
Re-membering the Literary Landscape
Public Reading
Moderation: Hanna Horn (Greifswald)
Friday, 11 JULY 2025 | DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, DOMSTRASSE 9a, ROOM 3.07
- 09:00-09:15
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Welcome Back
- 9:15-10:15
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Michael Basseler (Giessen)
Narrative Gaps as Forms: Reflections on the Aesthetic and Political Affordances of the Absent
Keynote Lecture
Moderation: Paula Friedericke Hartmann, Tim Senkbeil (both Greifswald) - 10:15-10:25
- Coffee Break
Confronting the Past. Literatures after 1989 (Part Ii)
- 10:30-11:15
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Anna Dzuiban (Munich)
Porous Memory: Gaps and Fluidity in Ukrainian and Irish Literatures
Moderation: Roman Dubasevych (Greifswald) - 11:20-12:05
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Tatiana Kelebek (Riga)
‘I Don’t Remember…’ Narrative Gaps and the Aesthetic of Absence in Nora Ikstena’s Soviet Milk
Moderation: Artis Ostups (Tartu) - 12:15-13:30
- Lunch Break
Out of the Frame. Gaps in Graphic Novels
- 13:45-14:30
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Ingvild Hagen Kjørholt (Trondheim)
Artefacts in two Contemporary Swedish Graphic Trauma Memoirs
Moderation: Paula Friedericke Hartmann (Greifswald) - 14:35-15:20
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Andreas Stuhlmann (Hamburg)
Fragmented Stories, Narrative Gaps, and Deconstructed Identities in Anke Feuchtenberger’s Graphic Novel Genossin Kuckuck
Moderation: Paula Friedericke Hartmann (Greifswald) - 15:20-15:55
- Coffee Break
- 16:00-17:00
- Final Discussion
