A Region on the Danube: Vojvodina – Multimedia and Multiple Perspectives. Contexts and Results of an Intercultural Seminar

Abstract

In our paper we would like to present the topic of an international cultural studies seminar in German studies and discuss the importance of spatial concepts for the formation and reshaping of identities. In doing so, we would like to show how this topic can stimulate students in an intercultural seminar to reflect on their own different identities and collaborations. If space has traditionally meant something self-evidently given, in modern theories of space in cultural studies it is understood as something in which social relations and functions are shaped. A distinction is subsequently made between physical and social space (place – space) and, following in the footsteps of Henri Lefebvre, also between the representations or imaginaries of spaces that endow them with meanings. In this dynamic triad of concepts, the latter is of particular importance for us. How was the Vojvodina region imagined by different ethnic groups? How are these conceptions of space connected to their different histories and how do they become part of different conceptions of identity? In the seminar some outstanding representatives of this multicultural region with exemplary texts, but also pictures and films were used as examples: among others ALEKSANDAR TIŠMA: The Use of Man, DANILO KIŠ: Garden, Ashes, LÁSZLÓ VÉGEL: Neoplanta; JOHANNES WEIDENHEIM: Pannonian story as well as the films Wintering in Jakobsfeld and The Farm in Mali Rit by Branko Bauer. Finally, since the topics were elaborated by students from Germany, Serbia and Hungary during a 4-day block seminar in Novi Sad in the fall of 2022, we would like to reflect on our teaching experiences. In the evaluation of the joint project, the connection between topics and teaching situation seems to be particularly important, as well as the question of how a trilateral cooperation differs from a bilateral one.