Background and Aims
ASNEL is the association for Postcolonial Studies in German-speaking countries. It provides a network and professional forum for researchers, students and teachers in this field, whether they are based at universities, schools, colleges or other institutions. Through a range of activities, events, publications and communication platforms, ASNEL offers support, information, research co-operation, and contacts for anyone interested in postcolonial issues across the disciplines and around the world.
Many countries, cultures, or societies worldwide have been shaped by colonialism. With the rise of European empires and their overseas expansion, entire continents or regions used to be dominated by foreign powers whose impact and influence often outstay a period of formal rule and may continue, with transcultural and transnational changes, into present-day globalized economies and cultures. Most notably, European cultures and languages such as English have spread across non-European territories where they have subsequently been adopted, transformed, or appropriated, often as one idiom among others, for communicative purposes, for literary production and other forms of cultural expression. This global range of postcolonial Englishes and the local base from which they work can no longer be considered part of England’s culture.
Postcolonial Studies recognize such processes and investigate their premises and consequences. They explore cross-cultural negotiations in areas which are, or have been at some point in their history, contact zones where different powers and traditions meet, clash or grapple with one another, often in strict hierarchies but sometimes also in quite unpredictable patterns of interaction. In terms of geography, this is mainly pertinent in Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific but also within European regions, especially at the margins of a dominant culture as in Ireland or Scotland, in areas with social and ethnic minorities, or in metropolitan locations like London where, in the wake of postcolonial migration, communities of diasporic cultures have long formed.
In terms of academic disciplines, postcolonial paradigms have proved highly relevant for the study of language, literature, theatre, media, music, and film, just as for the study of history, society, gender, politics, religion, ecology, ethnology, and all related fields. Since its formation in the late 1980s, ASNEL used to be particularly focused on anglophone literatures outside Britain and America – hence its traditional name. But the scope of Postcolonial Studies meanwhile extends far beyond "the new literatures in English" and includes the wider aspects mentioned. In crucial ways, therefore, Postcolonial Studies initiate shifts towards transcultural, translocal, and transdisciplinary perspectives, so as to raise new questions about received ideas and critically refocus familiar fields such as travel writing, autobiography or Shakespeare studies from different points of view.
Activities
Since the 1970s research and teaching of the New Literatures in English and, later, of Postcolonial Studies, has been established at German-speaking universities. ASNEL, founded in 1989, has contributed to the consolidation and continued growth of postcolonial studies and cognate university programmes by creating opportunities for dialogue such as:
· annual conferences with the participation of numerous academics and writers from abroad; the publication of selected conference papers in the ASNEL yearbooks.
· the publication of ACOLIT, the ASNEL newsletter. It informs members about new publications; contains specific postcolonial studies university programmes in all German-speaking countries; offers news on conferences and meetings.
· by supporting dialogue between academics, students and authors at an international level, ASNEL contributes to a general intercultural exchange and international interest in postcolonial studies.
ASNEL's aim is to communicate with colleagues and authors from our field, and not just to talk about them. ASNEL thus regularly invites writers and academics from all over the English-speaking world to its conferences and provides a responsive network for writers and academics interested in lectures and readings.
Supporting Young Academics
ASNEL is serious about supporting young academics and students who are pursuing postcolonial studies: students and doctoral candidates can become full members of ASNEL (at reduced rates); they are welcome at our annual conferences and represented on the ASNEL board.
Every two years, ASNEL students organize a Summer School on the Postcolonial Literatures in English. This is a conference at which authors and academics give students of English an insight into the cultural and literary variety of their field of study. ASNEL provides organisational and financial support as well as academic specialists for lectures and seminars.
The ANSEL-map allows users to find universities in Austria, Germany and Switzerland where Postcolonial Studies, new anglophone literatures and cultures as well as varieties of English are regularly taught. It provides direct access to profiles of institutions and individual researchers specializing in these areas.
Contact & Membership
Today, the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English has more than 250 members. If you are interested in academic exchange on these literatures; if you seek information on academic, cultural, political, and economic contact with countries from which these literatures have emerged; if you are keen on dialogues with authors and scholars - we invite you to become a member of this growing and dynamic association.
Interested? Please write to:
Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English (ASNEL)
Prof. Dr. Mark Stein
Chair of English, Postcolonial and Media Studies
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Johannisstr. 12-20
48143 Münster
Email: M.Stein.GNEL@gmail.com
Currently, the annual membership fee is €80 or €50 (reduced rate); the annual fee without yearbook subscription is €50 or €20 (reduced rate).
For our work, we depend on private sponsorship. We are thankful for every donation we receive. ASNEL is officially registered as a public-interest association; all donations are tax-free.
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