Alicante hosts the Goethe Society in Spain Congress at the University of Alicante from October 26 to 28, celebrating the centennial of German writer ETA Hoffmann with a focus on the fantasy of German literature. The event brings together more than forty experts who will present 37 papers, offer literary readings, and present cinema lectures across three days, with sessions in both morning and afternoon.
The keynote will be delivered by Hans Richard Brittnacher from the Free University of Berlin, a globally recognized authority on German literature. The congress is coordinated with the support of the German and Austrian embassies and gathers specialists in Hoffmann and related fantasy genres from Germany and Austria, as well as scholars from China, Italy, Slovenia, and Georgia. Participants include faculty from Spanish universities such as Granada, Barcelona, Illes Balears, Córdoba, Valladolid, Valencia, Alcalá de Henares, Oviedo, Murcia, and Complutense Madrid.
Maria Rosario Martí Marco, the congress organizer and a professor in the Department of Integrated Philology at the University of Alicante, presents the theme fantasy of German literature as more than terror. It includes science fiction, fanciful stories, and a variety of perspectives through close analyses of many authors work.
Topics
The three days of presentations are open to the public and will take place in the shopping center building on Avenida Ramón y Cajal and in the nearby San Fernando street in the afternoons. The program is organized around key themes such as ETA Hoffmann in Spain, fairy tales, and lasting classics. Other tracks explore female perspectives, cinema and transmediality, Austrian influences, fantasy nuances, transformations, and Eastern influences, as well as utopia, alchemy, magic, sinister tales, vampirism, and new fantasy settings. All talks are open to attendees, with some sessions conducted in German and others in Spanish.
In addition to scholarly sessions, the program features cultural activities like literary readings. One event highlights Ghosts and legends of the devil in the Alpine region of Innsbruck presented for present-day audiences. A separate session covers Dr. Caligari, a pivotal film that shaped the fantasy genre in cinema and influenced interwar German fantasy cinema and world cinema more broadly.
Congress
The Goethe Society in Spain organizes its congress on a rotating basis with universities hosting each year. For 2022 the University of Alicante was selected for organization, under the Department of Integrated Philology with the cooperation of the German and Austrian embassies. The opening remarks are delivered by the director of UA Research Structures, followed by key figures from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and other university representatives. The organizing team also includes the German Consul in Alicante and the President of the Goethe Society in Spain.