A Workshop held at Trier University, 20–21 September 2019 by the Department of Sinology, the DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Poetry in Transition’ (both Trier University) and the Monumenta Serica Institute, Sankt Augustin
As a conflux of several cultures – Chinese (both as national culture and very diverse local cultures), Austronesian indigenous, Japanese, and Western – modern Taiwan is a very fascinating setting for a literary community. Taiwanese authors explore this life-world from a multitude of perspectives in their works. The cultural pluralism of Taiwan becomes increasingly visible in literature with works published in Hakka, Hoklo, Minnanese, as well as in works in different indigenous microlanguages and in Chinese by indigenous Taiwanese authors. However, as it is, this vibrant literary community still remains at the fringes of Sinological research, leaving this aspect of Sinophone literature rather underrepresented in scholarly discourses in the West.
Thus, the organizers, the Department of Sinology, the DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies “Poetry in Transition” (both Trier University) and the Monumenta Serica Institute, were happy to receive sixteen scholars and authors from Taiwan, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy to an international workshop exclusively devoted to presenting the diverse literary scene of Taiwan. Gathering at Trier University, the participants reflected upon current trends in modern Taiwanese literature from multiple angles and engaged in fruitful discussions in the panels “State of the Field,” “Poetry,” “Indigenous Sinophone Literature of Taiwan,” “Female Perspectives in Literature,” and “Case Studies.”
For further information see the workshop program here.