Location: Conference Room of the IZfG, Rubenowstr. 3

In November 2024, the IZfG will cooperate with the cross-disciplinary research project Cringe: Aesthetics and Discursive Practice of Shamefulness at a workshop. The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation in the funding line Aufbruch (2024-2025), cooperation partners are Theresa Heyd (University of Heidelberg) and Heide Volkening (University of Greifswald).

The project is developing an inventory of present cringe phenomena and a theory of cringe in which sociolinguistic and literary studies perspectives are combined and shed mutual light on each other. We understand cringe as an ambivalent pleasure in discursive practices and aesthetic representations that are perceived as embarrassing, inappropriate or shameful. As an affective and embodied reaction of shamefulness, cringe phenomena and their descriptions are particularly suitable for observing current negotiations of social values and notions of gender normality.

The workshop aims at a cross-disciplinary exchange between gender studies, literary studies, media studies, queer studies and linguistics.

More about the project here or at https://uebercringe.de/

Programme

4 November
1.30 p.m. Welcome and introduction
Theresa Heyd (Heidelberg) and Heide Volkening (Greifswald)

14.00 Cringe - Meme - Instagram
Decentring the straight couple in heterocringe humour on Instagram
Alice Cesbron (Greifswald/Paris)

"second-hand embarrassment": Cringe in meme cultures
Brigitte Weingart (Berlin)

15.30 hrs Coffee break

16.00 Cringe - Body - (In)desire
Falling bodies. On the aesthetic stimulation of affects between aversion and desire
Roxanne Philips (Essen)

Cringe & masturbation - the shamefulness of masturbation
Miriam Hinterholzer & Lars Sörries-Vorberger (Hamburg)

5 November
From 8.30 a.m. Coffee, tea and rolls

09.00 Cringe - Ernst - Horror
Don't take your selfies too seriously
Iris Bencsik (Heidelberg)

Dimensions of cringe in Barbi Marcović's mini horror
Johanna Daether (Greifswald)

10.30 hrs Coffee break

11.00 a.m. Cringe - Disorder - Excess
"A Provision of Disorder" - The Weirde in Contemporary German-Language Literature
Philipp Ohnesorge (Greifswald)

Food Cringe: Of Excessive Eating and Messy Mukbang
Sofia Rüdiger (Berlin)

12.30 pm Closing round and statements

The number of participants in the workshop is limited due to the size of the room, so participation is unfortunately only possible to a limited extent. Please send requests for participation to: Heide.volkening@uni-greifswald.de.