EXC 2020 Temporal Communities

Part of the EXC 2020 Annual Conference 2025 "Futures of Doing Literature", 9–11 July 2025.

This panel invites participation in a dynamic fishbowl discussion that explores the evolving challenges and potentials associated with literary practice and research in the twenty-first century. Framed around key methodological and performative action – Translating, World-Making, Modelling, Appropriating, Performing, Identifying and De/canonising – the session opens a communal space to reflect on how literature is shaped, studied and enacted across diverse contexts.

Led by Cluster Directors Anne Eusterschulte and Andrew James Johnston, the event will foster a shared inquiry into the epistemic, aesthetic and institutional conditions under which literature is performed today.

As an interactive and participatory format, the fishbowl encourages spontaneous contributions from guests and Cluster members, who may join or leave the inner circle at any point, making this session an open forum for critical reflection and collaborative thinking that deliberately blurs the boundary between panellists and audience. Together, we will explore how doing literature operates not only as a scholarly endeavour, but also as a material, affective and communal practice that enables critique, mediation and engagement.

   

Initiated by Dîlan Canan Çakir (Research Area 5: Building Digital Communities), Rebecca Hardie (Articulations), Viktor J. Illmer (Research Area 5: Building Digital Communities) and Stefanie Messner (Technical University of Darmstadt).