German Romance Studies Day in Konstanz

39th Romance Studies Day in Konstanz – “Constancy and Change”

The academic program comprises a total of 21 thematic sections, which are divided into four areas: literary and cultural studies, linguistics, subject didactics, and transversal studies. 

• Literature and Cultural Studies Section 10: Philip Hillebrand (University of Osnabrück), Nanette Rissler-Pipka (Max Weber Foundation Bonn), Susanne Schlünder (University of Osnabrück) & Christof Schöch (University Trier)
  „Digital access to historical text corpora: analyses, practices, reflections.” Abstract

In addition to the opening ceremony, there will be three plenary lectures and a panel discussion as central events.

• Panel discussion on September 24, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: “Writing, Translating, Researching, Teaching – AI and (Romance) Languages,” organized by Marie Revellio and Philipp Lammers with the participation of Christof Schöch.

Theme

“Consistency and change” 

New technologies have always influenced the development of human life and societies. This also applies to Romance languages and literatures, as well as to the scientific study of them. For example, the advent of printing led to numerous Romance languages being written down on a larger scale and described in the first grammars. From a linguistic point of view, this technology is relevant because it led to the standardization and normalization of some of these languages and, at the same time, contributed to their spread at the expense of other languages and varieties. In the field of Romance literature, printing has not only led to a wider availability of texts thanks to the more efficient and cost-effective production of books, but also to a more intensive exchange of literary forms, ideas, and concepts.
Other technological developments, in turn, had a decisive influence on the content of literary works—one might think, for example, of the innovations of the 19th century, such as the railroad or the telephone, which expanded the scope of action for characters in novels and thus opened up new narrative possibilities. The invention of photography and subsequently film in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was of far-reaching significance. These visual media gave rise to new forms of storytelling that increasingly competed with traditional literary formats. At the same time, however, photography and film also promoted the further development of literature, insofar as they were a source of inspiration in terms of content and opened up new possibilities in terms of genre poetics. Looking at the further development of film in particular, serial formats are particularly noteworthy in this context. These have become increasingly widespread in the age of streaming and are thus exerting a fundamental influence on storytelling in other contexts as well.
More recently, digital technologies (the internet/social media, e-books, podcasts, audiobooks, virtual reality/augmented reality) have also greatly accelerated the spread and transformation of Romance languages and their literatures. In particular, digital forms of literature such as e-books and audiobooks, as well as the frequent online exchange about them, for example in podcasts or social media, have not only changed the way we talk about literature, its forms and content, but have also expanded the circle of those who can participate in the relevant discussions. At the same time, digital technologies have also led to radical changes in the academic study of languages and literatures: on the one hand, new developments are influencing not only the teaching of languages and literatures, but also language acquisition itself. On the other hand, artificial intelligence in general and large language models in particular pose a new challenge for dealing with texts, their production, and reception. These technologies have the potential to speed up time-consuming human tasks, such as the creation, revision, and analysis of data and content, or ultimately to automate them completely. At the same time, the capabilities of the corresponding models (especially in a university context) have also raised serious concerns. These developments challenge us to consciously address the possibilities and limitations of digital technologies.
The German Romance Studies Day 2025 will therefore focus on the question of what possibilities and opportunities the developments of current and historical “new technologies” open up and what forms of engagement are available to Romance studies in the field of tension between constancy and change.