Europe
Our project studies a small constellation of important literary and cultural magazines from three countries (Britain, France, Germany) in order to consider how they explore and construct notions of European identity in the period following from the end of the Second World War to the mid-1960s. Drawing on diverse theorisations of Europe and European public space, we ask: how does periodical culture in Britain, France, and Germany attempt to articulate a reconfigured notion of European identity after the catastrophe of World War Two?
Translation
At the heart of the project will be a focus upon the practice of translation: what is the significance of the translation of works of poetry, fiction, criticism, and non-fiction in our corpus of periodicals in this period? How do translated texts operate as vehicles for the forging of new European identities? Does the crossing of linguistic boundaries produce alliances across national borders? Conversely, in the practice of non-translation do we see a new assertion of national languages and identities? Do bilingual magazines in this period work to bring diverse national literatures together, or mark their continued divergence?
Politics
In the aftermath of the Second World War, rapid shifts towards decolonisation, the Americanisation of European culture, the rise of anti-militarism and the strategic and ideological conflicts
instigated by the Cold War all stimulated an ongoing reassessment of what the European idea stood for and how it might be achieved. How did these journals provide a platform for intellectuals to promote their visions of Europe, forging transnational networks and being actively internationalist in their cultural commitments?
Journals
Our project focuses upon eight major journals in each language area:
| German | British | French |
| Der Monat | Encounter | Les Temps Modernes |
| Neue Auslese | The Gate/Das Tor | Présence Africaine |
| Welt und Wort | Adam International Review | Preuves |
| Merkur | The London Magazine | La Table Ronde |
| Das Goldene Tor | Nine | Critique |
| Karussell | Arena | Two Cities |
| Die Umschau | Mandrake | La NEF |
| Die Wandlung | Nimbus | Lettres Nouvelles |
Events
As part of this project, we will be hosting a series of major events:
Workshop: Materiality in European Journals, hosted at Nottingham Trent University, 2021.
Exhibition: Europa in Kulturzeitschriften der Nachkriegszeit/Europe in Post-War Cultural Journals, hosted at Weißenburger Tor in Germersheim
Conference: Spaces of Translation, three-day international conference, hosted at Johannes Gutenberg-
Universität Mainz
Spaces of Translation 