On war, displacement and national memory – Professor Eigler at the UO

Instead of upholding competing narratives, one can find similarities, for example in the war experiences of Poles, Germans, Syrians or Afghans. This was the main idea of the lecture ‘’Permanent exhibition in Berlin: A successful transition from competing to multidirectional discourses of memory’, which was delivered by Professor Friederike Eigler on 12 November 2024,

The professor from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., spoke about the change that has recently taken place in the presentation of memory discourses. During her speech in the Blue Hall of the Collegium Maius, she emphasised that instead of focusing on competing narratives, such as the historical memory of the Poles versus the historical memory of the Germans, contemporary historians turn their attention to the similarities in the wartime experiences of civilians in Europe and around the world.

One such experience is the ‘expulsion’ or ‘’displacement‘’, so common after the Second World War and therefore shared by Poles and Germans. Today, the same is experienced by the peoples of Syria, Afghanistan and many other countries. This perspective on history helps to avoid hatred and the need for revenge in relations between nations. The Berlin exhibition that Professor Eigler spoke about is a great example of how changes in the understanding of memory discourses affect the building of international relations.

The audience filled the Blue Hall almost to capacity during Professor Friederike Eigler’s lecture. Our guest speaker is not only a professor of German literature at Georgetown University in Washington, where she served two terms as director of the Institute of German Studies. She has also twice chaired the Department of Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown. In addition, Professor Eigler is the author of numerous publications on 20th and 21st century literature and culture.

She was the editor of the 2020 anthology ‘Contemporary Literature: A German Studies Yearbook’ and the journal ‘The German Quarterly’. She has published the following monographs: ‘Narratives of Place, Space, and Belonging: Toward a Transnational Approach to Flight and Expulsion’ (Camden House, 2014) and ‘Gedächtnis und Geschichte in Generationenromane seit der Wende’ (Schmidt, 2005). Her other major publications include the volume ‘Heimat: At the Intersection of Space and Memory/Zwischen Raum und Gedächtnis’ (de Gruyter, 2012) and the special issue of ‘Colloquia Germanica’ on Europe and contemporary German literature, co-edited with Anke Biendarra (51. 3-4, 2020).

Prof. Eigler’s research interests focus on issues of memory, space and place, and gender. Her research projects explore the connections between literature and the visual arts and analyse literary testimonies of the refugee presence in Europe. It is therefore not surprising that she delivered her lecture as part of the ‘Encounters with Literature’ series and in the multicultural Opole region.

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