October 30, 2025 / 7.30 pm / Room 3

Conference

Scientific narratives of the present

Reading and discussion with Dietmar Dath

In numerous literary texts since postmodernism, scientists, historical scientific knowledge processes or a competition of scientific methods have been depicted. Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt are the protagonists of Daniel Kehlmann's "Measuring the World", Werner Heisenberg plays a central role in historical novels by Jérôme Ferrari or Jorge Volpi, Marie Curie is the focus of a popular novel by Susanna Leonard. Texts by Dietmar Dath, Ulrike Draesner or Christoph Ransmayr fictionalize elements of the theory of evolution, genetic research or geography. In "Schilf", Juli Zeh presents a contest between physical theories, while David Lodge and Laurent Binet allow different literary theories to clash in their novels.

In a two-day conference (Thu, 30.10., 13-21 and Fri, 31.10., 9-15), these diverse texts will be examined comparatively as well as the general structures that connect the individual works, e.g. the function of scientists as protagonists, the role of scientific institutions and methods for the fictional world or the relevance of the history of science for historical narrative texts. Concept: Erik Schilling and Christoph Schmitt-Maaß

Event organized by the Institute of German Studies at Leipzig University and the Literaturhaus Leipzig e.V.